Criminal Mischief in Colorado
The attorneys at The Aurora Criminal Defense Law Firm are experienced criminal defense attorneys in Colorado who defend people charged with criminal mischief.
In Colorado, criminal mischief can be charged as a petty offense, misdemeanor or felony depending on the amount of damage to real or personal property. The greater amount of property damage alleged, the more serious the criminal mischief charge will be.
Criminal mischief is defined in Colorado’s criminal mischief statute C.R.S. Section 18-4-501. The Colorado criminal mischief statute defines criminal mischief as follows:
C.R.S. Section 18-4-501, Colorado’s Criminal Mischief Statute
(1) A person commits criminal mischief when he or she knowingly damages the real or personal property of one or more other persons, including property owned by the person jointly with another person or property owned by the person in which another person has a possessory or proprietary interest, in the course of a single criminal episode.
(2) and
(3) Repealed.
(4) Criminal Mischief is:
(a) A petty offense when the aggregate damage to the real or personal property is less than three hundred dollars;
(b) A class 2 misdemeanor when the aggregate damage to the real or personal property is three hundred dollars or more but less than one thousand dollars;
(c) A class 1 misdemeanor when the aggregate damage to the real or personal property is one thousand dollars or more but less than two thousand dollars;
(d) A class 6 felony when the aggregate damage to the real or personal property is two thousand dollars or more but less than five thousand dollars;
(e) A class 5 felony when the aggregate damage to the real or personal property is five thousand dollars or more but less than twenty thousand dollars;
(f) A class 4 felony when the aggregate damage to the real or personal property is twenty thousand dollars or more but less than one hundred thousand dollars;
(g) A class 3 felony when the aggregate damage to the real or personal property is one hundred thousand dollars or more but less than one million dollars; and
(h) A class 2 felony when the aggregate damage to the real or personal property is one million dollars or more.
Possible Penalties for Criminal Mischief in Colorado
Criminal mischief can be charged as felony, misdemeanor, or petty offense depending on the amount of property damage alleged. Regardless of the amount of property damage alleged, the possible penalties for a criminal mischief charge are serious. They include possible fines, restitution, probation, jail, and prison followed by parole. Additionally, a criminal mischief conviction can result in serious collateral consequences including employment consequences, child custody consequences, housing consequences, immigration consequences, and many other civil consequences that can flow from a criminal mischief conviction.
The Aurora Criminal Defense Law Firm has assembled a possible penalties chart to help you better understand the possible penalties a person charged with criminal mischief in Colorado will face.
Criminal Mischief Amount of Damage
Criminal Mischief 18-4-501(4)(a)
Criminal Mischief 18-4-501(4)(b)
Criminal Mischief 18-4-501(4)(c)
Criminal Mischief 18-4-501(4)(d)
Criminal Mischief 18-4-501(4)(e)
Criminal Mischief 18-4-501(4)(f)
Criminal Mischief 18-4-501(4)(g)
Criminal Mischief 18-4-501(4)(h)
Possible Penalties
Petty Criminal Mischief
- Up to 10 days in jail; and/or
- $300 fine;
- Restitution
Class 2 Misdemeanor
- Up to 120 days in jail; or
- Probation; and/or
- $750 fine;
- Restitution
Class 1 Misdemeanor
- 364 days jail; or
- Probation;
- And up to a $1,000 fine;
- Restitution
Class 6 Felony
- 12-18 months in Colorado State Prison or Community Corrections followed by 1 year of mandatory parole; or
- Probation; and/or
- $1,000 – $100,000 fine;
- Restitution
Class 5 Felony
- 1-3 years in Colorado State Prison or Community Corrections followed by 2 years of mandatory parole; or
- Probation; and/or
- $1,000 – $100,000 fine;
- Restitution
Class 4 Felony
- 2-6 years in Colorado State Prison or Community Corrections followed by 3 years of mandatory parole; or
- Probation; and/or
- $2,000 – $500,000 fine;
- Restitution
Class 3 Felony
- 4-12 years in Colorado State Prison followed by 3 years of mandatory parole; or
- Probation; and/or
- $3,000 – $750,000 fine;
- Restitution
Class 2 felony
- 8-24 years in Colorado State Prison followed by 3 years of mandatory parole; or
- Probation; and/or
- $5,000 – $1,000,000
- Restitution
Criminal Mischief Amount of Damage
(Click Links Below To See Penalties)
Criminal Mischief 18-4-501(4)(a)
Criminal Mischief 18-4-501(4)(b)
Criminal Mischief 18-4-501(4)(c)
Criminal Mischief 18-4-501(4)(d)
Criminal Mischief 18-4-501(4)(e)
Criminal Mischief 18-4-501(4)(f)
Criminal Mischief 18-4-501(4)(g)
Criminal Mischief 18-4-501(4)(h)
Possible Penalties
Petty Criminal Mischief
- Up to 10 days in jail; and/or
- $300 fine;
- Restitution
Class 2 Misdemeanor
- Up to 120 days in jail; or
- Probation; and/or
- $750 fine;
- Restitution
Class 1 Misdemeanor
- 364 days jail; or
- Probation;
- And up to a $1,000 fine;
- Restitution
Class 6 Felony
- 12-18 months in Colorado State Prison or Community Corrections followed by 1 year of mandatory parole; or
- Probation; and/or
- $1,000 – $100,000 fine;
- Restitution
Class 5 Felony
- 1-3 years in Colorado State Prison or Community Corrections followed by 2 years of mandatory parole; or
- Probation; and/or
- $1,000 – $100,000 fine;
- Restitution
Class 4 Felony
- 2-6 years in Colorado State Prison or Community Corrections followed by 3 years of mandatory parole; or
- Probation; and/or
- $2,000 – $500,000 fine;
- Restitution
Class 3 Felony
- 4-12 years in Colorado State Prison followed by 3 years of mandatory parole; or
- Probation; and/or
- $3,000 – $750,000 fine;
- Restitution
Class 2 felony
- 8-24 years in Colorado State Prison followed by 3 years of mandatory parole; or
- Probation; and/or
- $5,000 – $1,000,000
- Restitution
Defenses to Criminal Mischief in Colorado
General Denial
The accused will be acquitted if the prosecution cannot prove every element of the criminal mischief offense beyond a reasonable doubt. When the accused raises a general denial defense, the accused denies that the criminal elements of criminal mischief exist. General denial is related to the failure of proof defense. The failure of proof defense arises when the accused pokes holes in the prosecution’s case and argues that the prosecution failed to prove each and every element of the criminal mischief offense beyond a reasonable doubt.
Lesser Included Offense Defense
In certain circumstances, the accused can raise the defense of lesser included offense in an criminal mischief case by arguing that the accused is not guilty of the more serious criminal mischief offense but only guilty of a lesser included criminal mischief offense because the amount of damages were less than alleged. For example, a person charged with a class 3 felony criminal mischief who raises the lesser included offense defense may contend that the class 3 felony criminal mischief was really a class 5 or class 6 felony criminal mischief offense. In some circumstances the accused may contend that the first degree criminal mischief was so lacking in seriousness as to amount to a misdemeanor criminal mischief offense. In lesser included offense defenses, the accused admits that the crime of criminal mischief happened but challenges the amount of property damaged and the class of offense alleged.
Lesser Non-Included Offense Defense
Lesser non-included offense defenses are somewhat novel. They often require litigation and favorable rulings from a judge before the jury can be instructed on a lesser non-included Criminal Mischief. The gist of a lesser non-included offense defense is that the accused admits that a crime happened but contends that the crime was not a criminal mischief offense but rather some other type of less serious crime. This defense can significantly reduce the accused’s exposure to serious felony consequences because some of the lesser non-included offenses that an accused may raise in a criminal mischief case are lower level misdemeanor or even petty offenses. This defense is uncommon but in certain cases it can be successfully raised.
Mistaken Identity
Mistaken identity is a general denial defense that attacks the element of who committed the alleged criminal mischief. As the prosecution is required not only to prove that the criminal mischief happened, but that the person charged committed the criminal mischief, the mistaken identity defense can be an effective way to challenge the prosecution on the element of who committed the crime. In the context of a criminal mischief case, mistaken identify defenses usually arise when the accused is arrested and charged with criminal mischief after the alleged criminal mischief happened or when the accused is identified after a chaotic situation where eyewitness accounts are not trustworthy. Mistaken identity cases often involve witness misidentification issues, poor witness perception issues, inaccurate, improper, or biased police identification procedures, grainy surveillance videos, and mistaken eyewitness accounts.
Alternate Suspect
The alternate suspect defense occasionally arises in criminal mischief cases. When the accused raises the alternate suspect defense, he or she does so to cast doubt on the identity element of the criminal mischief charges. In other words, the alternate suspect defense is used to cast doubt on the prosecution’s evidence that the accused committed the crime. By raising the alternate suspect defense, the accused casts doubt on the identity element of criminal mischief by raising the possibility that another person committed the criminal mischief rather than the accused. In Colorado criminal mischief trials the admissibility of alternate suspect evidence will depend on “the strength of the connection between the alternate suspect and the charged crime. If there is a non-speculative connection or nexus between the alternate suspect and the crime charged, the evidence will be admissible.”
If the defense introduces “alternate suspect” evidence, the judge must “look to whether all the similar acts and circumstances, taken together, support a finding that the same person was probably involved in both the other act and the charged crime.” If the judge finds that the accused has presented evidence sufficient to support a finding that an alternate suspect committed the crime, the accused can have the jury consider this evidence in their deliberations. While the alternate suspect defense is seldom used in criminal mischief cases, certain circumstances will give rise to the availability of this defense.
Duress
Under Colorado’s duress statute C.R.S. 18-1-708, a person may not be convicted of an offense, other than a class 1 felony, based upon conduct in which he engaged at the direction of another person because of the use or threatened use of unlawful force upon him or upon another person, which force or threatened use thereof a reasonable person in his situation would have been unable to resist. This defense is not available when a person intentionally or recklessly places himself in a situation in which it is foreseeable that he will be subjected to such force or threatened use thereof. The choice of evils defense, provided in section 18-1-702, shall not be available to a defendant in addition to the defense of duress provided under this section unless separate facts exist which warrant its application.
Entrapment
Under Colorado’s entrapment statute, C.R.S. 18-1-709, the commission of acts which would otherwise constitute an offense is not criminal if the defendant engaged in the proscribed conduct because he was induced to do so by a law enforcement official or other person acting under his direction, seeking to obtain evidence for the purpose of prosecution, and the methods used to obtain that evidence were such as to create a substantial risk that the acts would be committed by a person who, but for such inducement, would not have conceived of or engaged in conduct of the sort induced. Merely affording a person an opportunity to commit an offense is not entrapment even though representations or inducements calculated to overcome the offender’s fear of detection are used.
Choice of Evils
Under Colorado’s choice of evils statute, C.R.S. 18-1-702 (1) conduct which would otherwise constitute an offense is justifiable and not criminal when it is necessary as an emergency measure to avoid an imminent public or private injury which is about to occur by reason of a situation occasioned or developed through no conduct of the actor, and which is of sufficient gravity that, according to ordinary standards of intelligence and morality, the desirability and urgency of avoiding the injury clearly outweigh the desirability of avoiding the injury sought to be prevented by the statute defining the offense in issue.
(2) The necessity and justifiability of conduct under subsection (1) of this section shall not rest upon considerations pertaining only to the morality and advisability of the statute, either in its general application or with respect to its application to a particular class of cases arising thereunder. When evidence relating to the defense of justification under this section is offered by the defendant, before it is submitted for the consideration of the jury, the court shall first rule as a matter of law whether the claimed facts and circumstances would, if established, constitute a justification.
Statute of Limitations for Criminal Mischief in Colorado
In Colorado the statute of limitations for commencing criminal charges against a person is governed by C.R.S. Section 16-5-401. The statute of limitations for commencing criminal charges for Colorado Criminal mischief crimes is as follows:
- Felony criminal mischief charges must be filed within 3 years. C.R.S. 16-5-401(1)(a.5)
- Misdemeanor criminal mischief charges must be filed with 18 months. C.R.S. 16-5-401(1)(a.5)
- Petty offense criminal mischief charges must be filed within 6 months. C.R.S. 16-5-401(1)(a.5)
Contact the experienced attorneys at The Aurora Criminal Defense Law Firm to Fight for You Today
If you’ve been charged with a criminal mischief offense contact the attorneys at The Aurora Criminal Defense Law Firm to vindicate your rights and protect your liberties. If you’re facing criminal charges or fear you may be charged time is of the essence. Start Your Free Criminal Defense Case Quote. By retaining The Aurora Criminal Defense Law Firmyou can rest assured that:
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