How Colorado’s Mandatory Minimum Sentences Impact Drug Crime Defense
June 1, 2026
Colorado sees a lot of car thefts in a year – and the numbers continue to climb.
This has led lawmakers to reconsider how car theft is penalized here. Currently, how much a car is worth will inform the penalty for the crime upon conviction.
However, lawmakers are now fighting to change the sentencing structure for this crime. They want to enhance the penalties related to car theft that don’t take the vehicle’s value into account. Their reasoning? This property [...]
Two car thieves could face increased charges for allegedly injuring a man who tried to stop them in the act. What happened?
A man was sitting outside his home in the Colorado Springs area when two individuals allegedly entered his garage to steal his vehicle. When the two individuals reportedly started to drive the vehicle away, the owner jumped on the back to try to stop the theft. He was dragged for a few hundred yards before falling off and [...]
Here’s a lesson you hopefully don’t need us to teach you: do not drive a stolen car to court after being accused of car theft.
Sounds obvious, right? Unfortunately, that’s exactly what a Connecticut man did earlier this month.
Jonathan Rivera, 25, was scheduled to appear in court on charges of first-degree larceny and tampering with a vehicle. He showed up for his court appearance in a 2014 Subaru Legacy.
When he arrived, parking authority agents scanned the license plates [...]
Only one drug felony level in Colorado carries a true mandatory prison sentence. The other three carry presumptive ranges where a judge still has discretion, meaning the defense strategy in a DF2, DF3, or DF4 case looks completely different from that in a DF1 case. At the Law Office of Jacob Martinez, our Denver drug crimes attorney has spent more than a decade in Denver courts, working to achieve better outcomes for clients facing felony drug charges.
Only One Drug[...]Yes. Dash cam footage from police vehicles and your own camera can be used to challenge DUI charges in Colorado. The question is not whether it is relevant but whether you know how to obtain it, how Colorado courts evaluate it, and what a defense attorney actually does with it. The Law Office of Jacob E. Martinez has defended DUI cases throughout Denver and surrounding Colorado courts for more than 15 years.
What Colorado Police Dash Cams Actually Record at[...]A deferred judgment and sentence allows a first-time offender in Colorado to plead guilty, complete a period of court supervision, and then have the guilty plea withdrawn and the charge dismissed permanently. For someone facing their first criminal charge, this is often the best available outcome.
At the Law Office of Jacob Martinez, our Denver criminal defense team has negotiated deferred judgment agreements in Colorado courts since 2014.
How a Deferred Judgment and Sentence Works in ColoradoThe defendant enters [...]