Wells-Yates v. Colorado
Annotate this CaseIn this case and the two companion cases announced at the same time, Melton v. Colorado, 2019 CO 89, ___ P.3d ___, and Colorado v. McRae, 2019 CO 91, ___ P.3d ___, the Colorado Supreme Court considered multiple issues that lie at the intersection of proportionality review and habitual criminal punishment. In June 2012, Pat Crouch, an undercover agent with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, received information from a confidential informant that Belinda May Wells-Yates was stealing identity documents from cars. He arranged a meeting with Wells-Yates during which she sold him a birth certificate, a social security card, and a New Mexico driver’s license. Several days later, the Waldo Canyon fire started. Wells-Yates told the agent that she was “chasing the fire” (stealing property from homes that had been evacuated). The agent scheduled another meeting with her during which she sold him stolen property. After that meeting, Wells-Yates was arrested. A search of Wells-Yates and her belongings revealed a bag containing a small amount of methamphetamine, a set of scales, small plastic bags, and other drug paraphernalia. Wells-Yates was charged with multiple crimes, including burglary, and drugs possession charges. In total, Wells-Yates received an aggregate prison term of 72 years. Wells-Yates advanced a proportionality challenge. After conducting an abbreviated proportionality review of the aggregate prison term, the trial court found that it was not unconstitutionally disproportionate. The Colorado Supreme Court held: (1) during an abbreviated proportionality review of a habitual criminal sentence, the court must consider each triggering offense and the predicate offenses together and determine whether, in combination, they are so lacking in gravity or seriousness as to raise an inference that the sentence imposed on that triggering offense is grossly disproportionate; (2) in determining the gravity or seriousness of the triggering offense and the predicate offenses, the court should consider any relevant legislative amendments enacted after the dates of those offenses, even if the amendments do not apply retroactively; (3) not all narcotic offenses are per se grave or serious; and (4) the narcotic offenses of possession and possession with intent are not per se grave or serious. Because the court of appeals’ decision was at odds with the conclusions the Supreme Court reached in this case, it reversed judgment and remanded with instructions to return the case to the trial court for further proceedings.
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