v. Bott

Citations

• 2019 COA 100

Syllabus

In 2010, as part of his sex offender treatment for an unrelated crime, Bott confessed that he molested his infant daughter in 2004. Police did not file charges at that time. In 2014, after Bott's treatment had been terminated, police received information that his computer was linked to the distribution of child pornography. Police searched Bott's home and recovered a memory card containing nearly 300 images of child pornography and the questionnaire containing his written confession to having sexually abused his infant daughter. Bott was charged with five counts of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust, 12 counts of sexual exploitation of a child related to his possession of child pornography, and three additional counts of sexual exploitation related to his distribution of child pornography. At trial, the prosecution introduced Bott's written confession and images of child pornography recovered from his computer. The jury convicted defendant as charged. On appeal, Bott argued that the evidence was insufficient to support his sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust convictions because under the corpus delicti rule, he could not be convicted based on his confession alone and the prosecution did not present corroborating evidence that the crime occurred. Until 2013, Colorado adhered to the corpus delicti rule, which required that the prosecution present evidence independent of a defendant's confession to establish that a crime occurred. But when Bott was charged in 2014, Colorado had abandoned the corpus delicti rule and adopted the trustworthiness standard. However, this change in rules did not apply retroactively. Here, the evidence of Bott's possession of child pornography 10 years after the alleged offense, when considered together with the fact that he changed his daughter's diaper, was insufficient to prove the corpus delicti of sexual assault on a child. Accordingly, the evidence was insufficient to sustain Bott's convictions f