The People of the State of Colorado, Petitioner v. Joseph Phillip Diaz, Respondent

Summary

The court held that the applicable sentencing statute requires a sentence for assault on a detention-center employee to run consecutively with any sentence the defendant is serving when sentenced, even if that sentence was imposed after the assault. It rejected the contrary interpretation and concluded that the statute survives rational-basis equal-protection review because consecutive sentencing rationally advances deterrence of violence against custodial personnel.