Maestas v. People

Citations

• 2019 CO 45
• 442 P.3d 394

Syllabus

The Supreme Court granted certiorari to review the Court of Appeals division's opinion affirming defendant's conviction for second degree burglary. For the reasons discussed in McCoy v. People, 2019 CO 44, __ P.3d __, announced the same day, the Court concluded that sufficiency of the evidence claims may be raised for the first time on appeal and are not subject to plain error review. Accordingly, appellate courts should review sufficiency claims de novo (i.e., in the same manner as if the claims were preserved), and not under a plain error standard of review, including when the claims involve preliminary questions of statutory construction. Because the division reviewed defendant's sufficiency claim for plain error and affirmed the trial court's ruling without considering the merits of defendant's assertion that insufficient evidence supported his conviction for second degree burglary, the Court reversed the portion of the judgment concerning that count and remanded this case with instructions that the division perform a de novo review of defendant's sufficiency claim.