Cases | People v. Cunefare, 102 P.3d 302 (Colo. 2004) | 2018
Defendant was convicted of tampering with a witness and forgery in connection with two recantation letters allegedly sent by the victim to the prosecutor while assault charges were pending against defendant. In People v. Cunefare, 85 P.3d 594 (Colo. Ct. App. 2003), the appellate court reversed defendant’s convictions on the grounds that evidence was insufficient to support the tampering with a witness charge and that a false letter seeking the prosecutor’s sympathy cannot constitute forgery under Colo. Rev. Stat. § 18-5-102(1)(c). The supreme court held that: (1) in order to sustain conviction under § 18-5-102(1)(a), the victim or witness need not be under subpoena or legal summons at the time of contact, and the defendant need not succeed in interfering with actual testimony; (2) reasonable inferences from the victim’s testimony supported the statutory requirement that at the time of defendant’s actions, he believed that the victim could be called to testify and intentionally attempted to cause her to testify falsely; and (3) a letter to the prosecutor in which defendant forged the victim’s signature is an instrument that may affect a legal right or interest of defendant within the purview of the forgery statute.