Peo v. McGhee

── Peo v. McGhee ── Court: Colorado Court of Appeals Date: June 04, 2026 Category: General 22CA2147 Peo v McGhee 06-04-2026 COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS Court of Appeals No. 22CA2147 City and County of Denver District Court No. 21CR3297 Honorable Jennifer B. Torrington, Judge The People of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Jessie James McGhee, Defendant-Appellant. JUDGMENT AFFIRMED IN PART AND VACATED IN PART, AND CASE REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS Division II Opinion by JUDGE TOW Harris and Brown, JJ., concur NOT PUBLISHED PURSUANT TO C.A.R. 35(e) Announced June 4, 2026 Philip J. Weiser, Attorney General, Marixa Frias, Assistant Attorney General, Denver, Colorado, for Plaintiff-Appellee Megan A. Ring, Colorado State Public Defender, Meredith K. Rose, Deputy State Public Defender, Denver, Colorado, for Defendant-Appellant ¶1 Defendant, Jessie James McGhee, appeals the judgment of conviction entered on a jury verdict finding him guilty of felony murder and robbery. We affirm the judgment in part, vacate it in part, and remand with directions. I. Background ¶2 The jury heard evidence that would support the following findings. ¶3 John Jimenez was living at a hotel with his friend, Dustin Stefan. One evening, Jimenez met McGhee while smoking a cigarette in the hotel’s parking lot. McGhee said his name was James. After talking for a bit, Jimenez invited McGhee to his hotel room. ¶4 In the hotel room, McGhee, Stefan, and Jimenez smoked methamphetamine. Jimenez testified that they were talking about life and death and, as a result, the energy in the room “was super tense and full of friction and was making [him] nervous.” After going into the bathroom, McGhee came back into the room with a gun and pointed it at Jimenez, who got on the floor underneath the desk. Jimenez saw Stefan lunge toward McGhee and a fight ensued. Jimenez heard a gunshot and saw the fight move toward 1  the kitchenette. As the struggle continued, he heard a second gunshot, then a third, and then silence. Jimenez saw McGhee’s feet darting around the room, then McGhee approached him and demanded Jimenez’s phones and drugs. Jimenez gave McGhee one phone, and McGhee grabbed another phone off the nightstand. McGhee also took methamphetamine and marijuana and left. Jimenez dialed the hotel operator and said he needed police and an ambulance. ¶5 Police arrived and found Stefan lying on the floor of the room. Stefan was transported to the hospital where he died from a gunshot wound. ¶6 The jury found McGhee guilty of felony murder, aggravated robbery, and robbery. The trial court merged the aggravated robbery conviction into the felony murder conviction and sentenced McGhee to life in the custody of the Department of Corrections for the felony murder conviction concurrent to a twelve-year term for the robbery conviction. II. Sufficiency of the Evidence ¶7 McGhee contends that there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction for felony murder because the prosecution 2  failed to prove that McGhee killed Stefan “in the course of or in furtherance of” the predicate offense of robbery. More specifically, McGhee contends that the evidence fails to establish that he had formed the intent to commit or attempt to commit the robbery either before or at the time of the shooting. We disagree. A. Standard of Review and Applicable Law ¶8 “We review the record de novo to determine whether the evidence before the jury was sufficient both in quantity and quality to sustain the convictions.” Dempsey v. People, 117 P.3d 800, 807 (Colo. 2005). We view the direct and circumstantial evidence as a whole and in the light most favorable to the prosecution to