Court Opinion

ID: 9792940
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:39:44.924+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:01:50.935655
License: Public Domain

Judge TURSI
dissenting.
Because I believe, based upon the totality of the evidence, that defendant was entitled to an instruction on the lesser included offense of third degree sexual assault, I respectfully dissent.
The evidence before the court was in conflict. The complainant testified that the defendant threw her on the floor, removed her underclothing and his own, while at all times holding her as she struggled to escape.
The defendant testified that the complainant came into his bedroom while he was asleep, awakened him, and wanted to talk to him about a failed love relationship. After putting on his trousers, he joined her in the living room where she sat on his lap and they “messed around.” Then, at his request, she preceded him into the bedroom and on to the bed. Although she had said “no” to his requests for intercourse, that response was based on her fear of being discovered by defendant’s wife.
He further testified that at no time did he apply force, restraint, or threats and that she offered no resistance while he stood to remove his trousers, when he removed her underpants, or when he penetrated her. Defendant testified that he perceived the act of sexual intercourse to have been with her tacit consent. Further, the record is apparently devoid of any evidence of struggle or the application of physical force.
The elements of the crime of second degree sexual assault, as applicable here, are:
1. That the defendant,
2. knowingly inflicted sexual penetration on a person, and
3. caused submission of that person
4. by any means of sufficient consequence to reasonably cause submission against the victim’s will, and was
5. reasonably calculated to cause submission against that person’s will.
Section 18 — 3—403, C.R.S. (1986 Repl.Vol. 8B); see also COLJI-Crim. No. 12:05.
The elements of the crime of third degree sexual assault are:
1. That the defendant,
2. knowingly subjected a person to any sexual contact,
3. with knowledge that that person did not consent.
Section 18-3^04, C.R.S. (1986 Repl.Vol. 8B); COLJI-Crim. No. 12:07.
Due process of law protects an accused against conviction except upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every essential element of the criminal charge. Jolly v. People, 742 P.2d 891 (Colo.1987).
Contrary to the holding of the majority, sexual intercourse without consent did not, in and of itself, preclude the necessity of proof to sustain a conviction of second degree sexual assault charge. Rather, the charge requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the submission to intercourse was caused by means of sufficient consequences to reasonably cause submission against the complainant’s will and that those means were reasonably calculated to cause such submission against the complainant’s will.
In other words, a jury must apply an objective evaluation of the totality of the evidence in determining whether the means defendant used, in fact, did cause complainant’s submission against her will and that those means were reasonably calculated to so do. See Jolly, supra.
Here, there was evidence supporting defendant’s tendered instruction on third degree sexual assault: that he, with knowledge that the victim had said no at one time, nevertheless, had intercourse by means which were neither of sufficient consequence to reasonably cause submission against the complaining witness’s will nor reasonably calculated to cause submission against her will. See People v. Smith, 638 P.2d 1 (Colo. 1981); see also People v. McGregor, 635 P.2d 912 (Colo.App.1981).
*318If, as here, when a defendant mistakenly believes that he had consent but did nothing that was of sufficient consequence reasonably to cause submission, nor anything that was reasonably calculated to cause submission against the other person’s will, he is entitled to an alternative theory of defense and an instruction on the lesser included offense of third degree sexual assault. See People v. Staggs, 740 P.2d 21 (Colo.App.1987).
Thus, based on the totality of the evidence, even though sexual penetration did occur, the necessary element of causation required for submission to establish the crime of second degree sexual assault may not have been accepted by the jury if an instruction on third degree assault had been given.
Therefore, I would reverse and remand for retrial on the issues of second and third degree sexual assault.