Opinion ID: 2595151
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Special Drug Offender Sentence

Text: Regardless of the classification of the defendant's underlying felony, his adjudication as a special drug offender for an offense committed before July 1, 1997, required that he be sentenced to a term in the aggravated range for a class 2 felonya term greater than twenty-four years but no greater than forty-eight years. § 18-18-407(1), 8B C.R.S. (Supp.1996); § 18-1-105(1)(a)(V)(A), 8B C.R.S. (Supp.1996). Had the defendant committed his offense several weeks later, the special drug offender statute would have required a term of at least the minimum term of years within the presumptive range for a class 2 felony but not more than twice the maximum term of years within the presumptive range for a class 2 felony, see § 18-18-407(1), 6 C.R.S. (1997) (effective July 1, 1997)a term that could be as little as eight years. § 18-1-105(1)(a)(V)(A), 6 C.R.S. (1997). By erroneously considering the amended version of the statute to be applicable, the court of appeals was apparently mislead into believing that the minimum available sentence was dictated by the habitual criminal sentence rather than the special drug offender statute. Because the permissible range for a class 2 felony, at the time applicable to the defendant's offense, was actually greater (by one day) than the twenty-four-year sentence required by the habitual criminal statute, the length of the defendant's permissible sentence was not further limited by his habitual criminal status. However, because the defendant's habitual criminal status requires a sentence to incarceration, see § 16-13-101(2), 8A C.R.S. (Supp.1996), while the special drug offender statute merely increases the length of the defendant's sentence for possession of less than an ounce of cocaine, see Shipley, 45 P.3d at 1282, the defendant's adjudication as an habitual criminal may very well limit, in other ways, the court's sentencing options.