Peo v. Sanchez

── Peo v. Sanchez ── Court: Colorado Court of Appeals Date: May 21, 2026 Category: General 24CA0175 Peo v Sanchez 05-21-2026 COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS Court of Appeals No. 24CA0175 El Paso County District Court No. 21CR3803 Honorable Diana May, Judge The People of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Josue Fernando Sanchez, Defendant-Appellant. JUDGMENT AFFIRMED AND CASE REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS Division II Opinion by JUDGE FOX Kuhn and Sullivan, JJ., concur NOT PUBLISHED PURSUANT TO C.A.R. 35(e) Announced May 21, 2026 Philip J. Weiser, Attorney General, Allison S. Block, Assistant Attorney General, Denver, Colorado, for Plaintiff-Appellee Megan A. Ring, Colorado State Public Defender, Kristiana Perryman, Deputy State Public Defender, Denver, Colorado, for Defendant-Appellant ¶1 Defendant, Josue Fernando Sanchez, appeals his convictions for two counts of second degree arson, one count of criminal mischief, and one count of possession of a controlled substance. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of conviction but remand the case so the trial court may correct the mittimus. I. Background ¶2 Sanchez lived on the second floor of an apartment building and shared a stairwell hallway with a neighbor. In a video captured by the neighbor’s security camera, Sanchez held a lighter to the hallway floor, staircase railing, and his doorway; rubbed the walls and railing with toilet paper; and wadded up and set fire to the toilet paper. Sanchez then went inside his apartment as the toilet paper burned on the hallway carpet and reemerged to again rub the walls. When the small fire went out, Sanchez kicked embers and ash down the stairs. The neighbor reported the incident to the police after watching the security camera footage. ¶3 Officers took Sanchez into custody. While searching him they found a bag of methamphetamine, a pipe, a lighter, and someone else’s debit card. Sanchez admitted to setting the hallway fire and another fire inside his apartment, and he explained that he thought 1  rubbing the fire’s ash on his body would alleviate his persistent itching. The police then returned to the apartment building to investigate. Inside Sanchez’s apartment, they found evidence of several small fires: on a light fixture and its chains, on the bedroom and bathroom floor, and in holes in the wall and ceiling. ¶4 The People tried four charges to verdict: two counts of first degree arson, § 18-4-102(1)-(2), C.R.S. 2025, one count of criminal mischief, § 18-4-501(1), (4)(b), C.R.S. 2025, and one count of unlawful possession of a controlled substance, § 18-18-403.5(1), (2)(c), C.R.S. 2025. In addition to first degree arson, the trial court instructed the jury on the lesser included offense of second degree arson. The jury, having viewed the security camera footage and a video of Sanchez admitting to setting the fires, convicted him on two counts of second degree arson, criminal mischief, and unlawful possession of a controlled substance. ¶5 Sanchez argues on appeal that (1) the evidence was insufficient to find that he “burned” — as opposed to “scorched” — the property, precluding his conviction for second degree arson; (2) the trial court erred by denying his motion for a mistrial after the People displayed language from case law in a closing argument 2  PowerPoint slide; and (3) the mittimus contains several errors. We affirm the judgment of conviction but remand the case so the trial court may correct the mittimus. II. Sufficiency of the Evidence: Second Degree Arson A. Additional Background ¶6 Officers found fire damage on the hallway carpet, the apartment ceiling drywall, the apartment floor, and