People v. Medina

Full title: The People of the State of Colorado v. Gerald Mercy Medina

Court: Supreme Court of Colorado. En Banc

Date published: Dec 10, 1979

604 P.2d 682 (Colo. 1979)

604 P.2d 682

Opinion

No. 79SA188

Decided December 10, 1979. Rehearing denied January 21, 1980.

The defendant appeals from the district court's denial of his request under Crim. P. 35(b) for credit for presentence detention against a sentence of life imprisonment for first-degree murder.

Affirmed

1. CRIMINAL PROCEDURE — Presentence Detention — Denial of Credit — Life Imprisonment — Proper. In a Crim. P. 35(b) proceeding, where district court denied defendant's request for credit for presentence detention against a sentence of life imprisonment it acted correctly.

Appeal from the District Court of the County of Adams, Honorable Oyer G. Leary, Judge.

J. D. MacFarlane, Attorney General, David W. Robbins, Deputy, Edward G. Donovan, Solicitor General, Kathleen M. Bowers, Assistant Attorney General, for plaintiff-appellee.

J. Gregory Walta, State Public Defender, Craig L. Truman, Chief Deputy, Terri L. Brake, Deputy, for defendant-appellant.

JUSTICE GROVES delivered the opinion of the Court.

[1] The district court denied the defendant's request in a Crim. P. 35(b) proceeding for credit for presentence detention against a sentence of life imprisonment. The defendant has appealed, and we affirm.

On January 31, 1971 the defendant was arrested under a charge of first-degree murder. He was denied bail and was confined until his trial, at the conclusion of which the jury returned a verdict of guilty and fixed the penalty at life imprisonment. On January 2, 1972 the trial judge so sentenced the defendant. By request filed on April 20, 1978 the defendant asked for an amended mittimus to reflect the presentence incarceration of 11 months and five days. The district court denied the request on May 12, 1978, and the case is here having been transferred from the court of appeals.

This case was consolidated for oral argument with People v. Jones, 198 Colo. 578, 604 P.2d 679 (1979), announced contemporaneously with this opinion. The principal factual difference between the two cases is that here the defendant was denied bail, whereas in Jones the defendant was indigent and unable to furnish bond. Under our holding in Jones, the factual difference is immaterial.

For the information of department of corrections, we state that the presentence incarceration of the defendant was 11 months and 5 days.

For the reasons there expressed, the judgment is affirmed.