v. Rigsby

Summary

The court held that the guilty verdicts for second degree assault and third degree assault were not legally mutually exclusive because Colorado law treats a more culpable mental state as necessarily establishing lesser culpable mental states. It nevertheless held that the resulting convictions were multiplicitous and violated double-jeopardy protections because they arose from the same conduct and the legislature had not authorized multiple punishments. The court reversed and remanded for merger into one second degree assault conviction and retention of one sentence.