Opinion ID: 2582157
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Theft Against At-Risk Adults

Text: The Colorado Criminal Code contains an entire article dedicated to wrongs committed against at-risk adults. § 18-6.5-101 to -106, 6 C.R.S. (2003) (Article 6.5). In the legislative declaration to Article 6.5, the General Assembly expressed its intent to impose more severe penalties for specified crimes when the victim is at-risk. § 18-6.5-101, 6 C.R.S. (2003). [4] The General Assembly defined two categories of victims that qualify for this heightened protection: at-risk adults and at-risk juveniles. § 18-6.5-101. An at-risk adult is any person who is sixty years of age or older or any person who is eighteen years of age or older and is a person with a disability. § 18-6.5-102(1), 6 C.R.S. (2003). Within Article 6.5, section 18-6.5-103, 6 C.R.S. (2003) enumerates which criminal acts are subject to increased penalties when committed against an at-risk victim. Section 18-6.5-103(5) states that: Any person who commits theft, and commits any element or portion of the offense in the presence of the victim, as such crime is described in section 18-4-401(1), and the victim is an at-risk adult or an at-risk juvenile, commits a class 5 felony if the value of the thing involved is less than five hundred dollars or a class 3 felony if the value of the thing involved is five hundred dollars or more. Theft from the person of an at-risk adult or an at-risk juvenile by means other than the use of force, threat, or intimidation is a class 4 felony without regard to the value of the thing taken. § 18-6.5-103(5). This section thus imposes a more severe punishment for the commission of theft against at-risk adults as compared to the commission of theft against other victims, but it does not list elements that constitute the commission of theft against an at-risk adult. Instead, it refers back to the general theft statute by cross referencing that statute. As a consequence, the theft against at-risk adults provision does not apply unless a defendant's conduct constitutes theft under the general theft statute. [5]