Cardman v. People

Citations

• 2019 CO 73
• 445 P.3d 1071

Syllabus

A detective coerced defendant into making a confession, and the prosecution then used that confession as evidence against defendant to convict him of multiple offenses. Before trial, defendant sought to suppress his statements but neglected to challenge their voluntariness. As a result, the trial court did not rule on that issue and a division of the Court of Appeals declined to review its merits, finding that it was waived. The Supreme Court agreed with the division that the voluntariness claim was not preserved. But it determined that no waiver occurred. Instead, relying on the companion case of Phillips v. People, 2019 CO 72, __ P.3d __, announced the same day, and on People v. Rediger, 2018 CO 32, 416 P.3d 893, it held that the voluntariness claim was forfeited, not waived, and is thus subject to plain error review. Upon conducting such review, the Court concluded that the trial court erred in admitting defendant's statements and that the error amounts to plain error and requires reversal. The Court of Appeals' judgment was reversed and the case was remanded.