The Difference Between Misdemeanor and Felony Assault Charges in Colorado
June 30, 2026
Colorado law recognizes your right to protect your person, your property, and other people when unlawfully threatened. Unfortunately, while self-defense is a lawful and perfectly understandable instinct, proving that you were acting out of self-defense in court is an incredibly difficult task.
In Colorado, the laws determining whether you acted in self-defense are not hard and fast ones, since many judges have differing views on what it means to protect yourself. If you use physical force to defend yourself, you [...]
While our nation’s youth crime rates have declined considerably in the last 20 years, the US continues to put more children and teenagers in juvenile detention centers than any other developed country. Our juvenile incarceration rate is seven times higher than Britain’s, and 18 times higher than France’s rate. Each year, we spend millions of taxpayer dollars keeping children and teens behind bars.
While these numbers are frightening on their own, it’s even more frightening to consider the effects of [...]
For some, it’s considered the season of giving. For others, it’s the season of shopping. But for as many as one in 11 Americans, it’s also the season of shoplifting.
The world has a serious shoplifting problem as it is—last year alone, it was estimated that retailers lost $112 billion worth of inventory. In America, the shoplifting problem only worsens during the holidays, when research shows that national shoplifting arrests increase nearly nine percent. The struggling economy has had an [...]
In adult society today, alcohol is almost everywhere we look—beer has become a central point of social gatherings, a rum and coke helps us break the ice in bars, a glass of wine helps us unwind after a long day at the office. While the prevalence of alcohol in today’s society is something that many of us have become accustomed to, the fact that it has become such an accepted part of how we socialize is something we need [...]
The holidays are upon us already, and even though your stomach may still be recovering from the Thanksgiving feast, Christmas and New Years are just around the corner – not to mention another month (or, hopefully, two!) of tailgating at Broncos games.
But you should be worried about a lot more than putting on a few extra pounds this holiday season. According to this eye-opening infographic, there’s a 33% jump in DUI offenses between Blackout Wednesday and January 2[...]
Assault charges in Colorado can range from a misdemeanor accusation after a physical confrontation to a serious felony carrying years in prison. The difference usually depends on the alleged intent, the level of injury, whether a weapon was involved, and whether the alleged victim falls into a protected category under Colorado law.
That distinction matters immediately. A misdemeanor assault case may still carry jail time, fines, a permanent criminal record, and collateral consequences for employment, housing, licensing, and your reputation. [...]
A preliminary hearing in a felony case in Colorado is one of the earliest opportunities for the prosecution’s evidence to be tested before a judge. It happens after charges have been filed and the defendant has made an initial appearance, but before the case moves into trial court. The hearing is not about deciding guilt or innocence. Instead, the court is checking whether the prosecution has sufficient evidence to move the case forward.
In Colorado, this stage is often [...]
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[...]