Opinion ID: 2601914
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introduction

Text: We granted certiorari to review the court of appeals' decision affirming the trial court's sentence of Emanuel Villanueva to a term of confinement in the aggravated range based on Villanueva's admission to violating a condition of probation during a probation revocation hearing. People v. Villanueva, ___ P.3d ___, No. 05CA2542, 2007 WL 2728629 (Colo.App. Sept. 20, 2007). In 2002, Villanueva pled guilty to attempted sexual assault on a child and was sentenced to a term of two years probation. He subsequently contacted the victim, violating a condition of his probation. At the revocation hearing, Villanueva confessed the contact and admitted it violated a term of his probation. The trial court determined the admission was an extraordinary aggravating circumstance under section 18-1.3-401(6), C.R.S. (2008), permitting a sentence over the presumptive range. The court therefore sentenced Villanueva to an aggravated range term of five years in the Department of Corrections (DOC). In order for a defendant's admission to be used to impose a sentence over the presumptive range, he must waive his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to have the facts used to aggravate his sentence be proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Because Villanueva was not advised of, and did not waive, his right to have aggravating facts proved beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury, he could not be sentenced beyond the presumptive range. Thus, we reverse the court of appeals and remand for resentencing consistent with this opinion.