People v. Wilson

Summary

The Colorado Court of Appeals held that the unit of prosecution for violating a child custody order under section 18-3-304(2), C.R.S. 2025, is the number of children affected rather than the number of custody orders violated. The court affirmed Wilson’s convictions for custody-order violations, child abuse, resisting arrest, and obstructing government operations, concluding that the evidence was sufficient and that no evidentiary error occurred. The case was remanded for the trial court to merge the knowing or reckless and negligent child abuse convictions and amend the mittimus.

Holdings

1. The evidence was sufficient for a reasonable jury to find that Wilson violated the custody order, intended to deprive the lawful custodian of custody, and that the order was issued by a Colorado district court.
2. The evidence was sufficient to support both child-abuse convictions because Wilson permitted her child to remain in a situation posing a threat of injury and acted with the required mental state.
3. The trial court did not err in admitting evidence that some of Wilson's children had previously been in foster care because the evidence did not suggest bad character or prior misconduct and was relevant to whether Wilson understood the custody order.
4. The unit of prosecution under section 18-3-304(2) is the number of children affected, not the number of custody orders violated; Wilson's four convictions were therefore not multiplicitous.
5. Wilson's negligent child-abuse conviction must merge into her knowing-or-reckless child-abuse conviction because both convictions were based on identical conduct and the negligence offense was lesser included.

Questions Presented

1. Whether sufficient evidence supported Wilson's convictions for violating a child custody order and child abuse.
2. Whether evidence that Wilson's children had previously been in foster care was inadmissible extrinsic bad-character evidence under CRE 404(b).
3. Whether four convictions for violating a custody order were multiplicitous because the unit of prosecution was the number of custody orders violated rather than the number of children affected.
4. Whether Wilson's negligent child-abuse conviction had to merge into her knowing-or-reckless child-abuse conviction.

Disposition

affirmed