Peo v. Pelico-Vargas

── Peo v. Pelico-Vargas ── Court: Colorado Court of Appeals Date: April 16, 2026 Category: General 23CA0518 Peo v Pelico-Vargas 04-16-2026 COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS Court of Appeals No. 23CA0518 Larimer County District Court No. 21CR742 Honorable Laurie K. Dean, Judge The People of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Hageo Misael Pelico-Vargas, Defendant-Appellant. JUDGMENT AFFIRMED Division I Opinion by JUDGE MEIRINK J. Jones and Lum, JJ., concur NOT PUBLISHED PURSUANT TO C.A.R. 35(e) Announced April 16, 2026 Philip J. Weiser, Attorney General, Brenna A. Brackett, Assistant Attorney General, Denver, Colorado, for Plaintiff-Appellee Megan A. Ring, Colorado State Public Defender, Robin Rheiner, Deputy State Public Defender, Denver, Colorado, for Defendant-Appellant ¶1 Defendant, Hageo Misael Pelico-Vargas, appeals the trial court’s judgment of conviction entered on a jury verdict finding him guilty of sexual assault on a child. We affirm. I. Background ¶2 Pelico-Vargas started sending Facebook direct messages to his cousin’s daughter, M.V-V., when she was fourteen years old and he was twenty-three. The messages started out friendly but over time grew more sexual. At the time, Pelico-Vargas lived in the same trailer park area as M.V-V. ¶3 Shortly before M.V-V.’s fifteenth birthday, Pelico-Vargas told her that he had a surprise birthday present for her. Pelico-Vargas asked M.V-V. if they could meet up before she went to school. Pelico-Vargas picked up M.V-V. in his car and drove to a nearby park. Once he’d parked, he told M.V-V. to go into a portable bathroom located at the park. M.V-V. went into the portable bathroom, and Pelico-Vargas followed. Pelico-Vargas then tried to take off M.V-V.’s clothes. M.V-V. told Pelico-Vargas that she was nervous and that maybe they could meet up another day. Pelico- Vargas touched M.V-V.’s breasts and “private parts.” He then asked her to perform oral sex on him, to which M.V-V. said no 1  because “it was gross and [she had] never done it.” Pelico-Vargas then told M.V-V., “You are going to like it, just bend down.” When describing the interaction, M.V-V. said, “[He] pretty much like kind of pushed me down toward his dick and forced me to suck it.” When M.V-V. started to gag Pelico-Vargas told her, “[D]on’t be so immature.” Pelico-Vargas then attempted to perform vaginal sex. M.V-V. testified that at that point she was shaking and told him no. Pelico-Vargas grew frustrated, and the two left the portable bathroom. ¶4 At trial, M.V-V. testified to three other sexual interactions with Pelico-Vargas. She testified that on one occasion when she was fifteen years old Pelico-Vargas entered her parents’ house through the window even though M.V-V. didn’t want him to come in. M.V-V. told Pelico-Vargas that she wanted him to leave and didn’t want to have sex, but Pelico-Vargas pushed her down on a bed and made her perform vaginal sex. M.V-V. also said that on two separate occasions Pelico-Vargas “convinced and forced” her to perform oral sex on him when she met up with him to obtain marijuana that her friend had paid him for. 2 ¶5 In October or November 2019, Pelico-Vargas’s girlfriend at the time, Celestina Chavez, confronted M.V-V. at a family gathering. M.V-V. and Chavez went to a nearby park and discussed M.V-V. and Pelico-Vargas. In November 2019, Chavez confronted M.V-V.’s mother, E.V-V., about M.V-V. and Pelico-Vargas having sex. Chavez had Pelico-Vargas come outside during the interaction; E.V- V. tried to slap Pelico-Vargas, but he ran into his house. In January 2020, E.V-V. reported the allegations to a counselor at M.V-V.’s school, who then contacted a school resource officer (SRO). ¶6 Pelico-Vargas was charged with