Court Opinion

ID: 9883258
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 01:39:08.611109+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:17.480443
License: Public Domain

DUBOFSKY, Justice,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent.
The majority remands this case for the district court to reconsider under People v. Sanchez, 649 P.2d 1049 (Colo.1982), whether the delay in setting the trial date resulted from the defendant’s absence. Because the facts in Sanchez differ significantly from the facts before us in this case and because the district court already considered whether the facts here come within Sanchez, I would affirm the district court order.
In Sanchez, when the defendant was returned to court after failing to appear for his original trial date, only ten days remained of the speedy trial period. On the day the defendant was returned, the judge who had conducted the prior proceedings in the case was on vacation. Another judge continued the matter until the date the original trial judge was to return, three days beyond the expiration of the extended speedy trial period once the days during which the defendant was absent had been excluded. The case was set for trial six days later. Before trial, the court granted the defendant’s motion to dismiss for failure to comply with speedy trial requirements. We noted that the record contained no suggestion that there was a more expeditious manner of handling the case and that the delay, nine days beyond the speedy trial period, was short. We held that section 18-1-405(6), 8B C.R.S. (1986), and Crim.P. 48(b) contemplate an exclusion from the speedy trial period of the time of the defendant’s actual absence and any additional period of delay that may be fairly attributable to the defendant as a result of his voluntary absence. Sanchez, 649 P.2d at 1051.
In its ruling on the motion to dismiss in the instant case, the district court specifically referred to Sanchez and made clear that the only reason it did not set the case for trial earlier was because it was under the misapprehension that the six month speedy trial period began again after a defendant had fled the jurisdiction and been returned. Instead, under the statute and the rule, the court had approximately two months and one week after the defendant was returned to court within which to set his trial. At the hearing on the motion to dismiss the public defender stated that trials in the Adams County District Court, where these charges were filed, were being set for trial approximately two months from the date of arraignment. Neither the prosecutor nor the court disputed the public defender’s statement about the possibility of setting a trial within two months.
The majority remands this case for further factual findings on whether any of the delay after the defendant’s return to Colorado could be attributed to him. On the basis of the record, I see no reason to *1216remand for further findings. I would affirm the district court’s ruling.
I am authorized to say that Justice LOHR joins in this dissent.