Peo v. Perez

── Peo v. Perez ── Court: Colorado Court of Appeals Date: May 21, 2026 Category: General 23CA1831 Peo v Perez 05-21-2026 COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS Court of Appeals No. 23CA1831 Boulder County District Court No. 22CR119 Honorable Robert R. Gunning, Judge The People of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Eliseo Perez, Defendant-Appellant. JUDGMENT AFFIRMED Division I Opinion by JUDGE J. JONES Fox and Dunn, JJ., concur NOT PUBLISHED PURSUANT TO C.A.R. 35(e) Announced May 21, 2026 Philip J. Weiser, Attorney General, Sonia Raichur Russo, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Denver, Colorado, for Plaintiff-Appellee Megan A. Ring, Colorado State Public Defender, Madeline B. Dobkin, Deputy State Public Defender, Denver, Colorado, for Defendant-Appellant ¶1 Defendant, Eliseo Perez, appeals the district court’s judgment of conviction entered on a jury verdict finding him guilty of felony driving while ability impaired (FDWAI). We affirm. I. Background ¶2 One afternoon, Perez drove his car to a Walmart Auto Center to have it serviced. Security camera footage showed Perez parking his car in the Walmart parking lot and walking inside. ¶3 Inside the Auto Center, Perez checked in his car with an associate. Perez asked for several different services, first requesting one tire change, then two. He also wanted the service to be done immediately. When the associate told Perez that he would have to wait for his car to be serviced, Perez became frustrated and raised his voice. Upon hearing the yelling, the Auto Center supervisor approached Perez. According to the supervisor, Perez slurred his words and smelled of alcohol. Perez seemed unable to understand that there would be a wait for his car to be serviced or that the technicians needed his keys to perform the requested services. Perez became frustrated, grabbed his keys, and left the building. ¶4 Security camera footage showed that Perez left the Auto Center and sat in his car in the Walmart parking lot for about twenty-five 1  minutes. When Perez returned to the Auto Center, the supervisor noticed that he was “being very loud and belligerent, yelling, shouting, [and] cussing.” His slurring had also become worse, to the point where the supervisor couldn’t understand what Perez was saying. ¶5 Perez eventually gave his keys to the supervisor so the technicians could service his car. He sat down in a chair in the Auto Center’s waiting area and began to doze off. ¶6 An associate went to Perez’s car to drive it into the garage to be serviced. When he opened the car door, he found several open bottles of alcohol in the car’s passenger seat. The associate alerted the supervisor to the alcohol. The supervisor then alerted the store’s asset manager. Per Walmart’s policy, the asset manager called the police and reported a potentially intoxicated person in the store. ¶7 Police officers arrived and found Perez sitting in the chair. The officers observed that Perez’s eyes were bloodshot and glassy, his speech was slurred, and he smelled strongly of alcohol. The officers asked Perez if he had been drinking, and he responded, “Yes.” They 2  also asked Perez if he had driven himself to the Walmart, and he again responded, “Yes.” ¶8 The officers arrested Perez. Because Perez had been convicted of driving under the influence (DUI) or driving while ability impaired (DWAI) on five prior occasions, the People charged him with felony DUI (FDUI) under section 42-4-1301(1)(a), C.R.S. 2025. A jury found Perez guilty of FDWAI. See § 42-4-1301(1)(b). The district court sentenced him to three years in the custody of the Department of Corrections. II. Discussion ¶9 Perez contends that the distri