Peo v. Gonzalez

── Peo v. Gonzalez ── Court: Colorado Court of Appeals Date: June 04, 2026 Category: General 24CA0785 Peo v Gonzalez 06-04-2026 COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS Court of Appeals No. 24CA0785 Douglas County District Court No. 22CR353 Honorable Ryan J. Stuart, Judge The People of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Alfredo Manuel Gonzalez, Defendant-Appellant. JUDGMENT AFFIRMED IN PART AND REVERSED IN PART, AND CASE REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS Division I Opinion by JUDGE J. JONES Fox and Dunn, JJ., concur NOT PUBLISHED PURSUANT TO C.A.R. 35(e) Announced June 4, 2026 Philip J. Weiser, Attorney General, Yaried A. Hailu, Assistant Attorney General Fellow, Denver, Colorado, for Plaintiff-Appellee Megan A. Ring, Colorado State Public Defender, Kira L. Suyeishi, Deputy State Public Defender, Denver, Colorado, for Defendant-Appellant ¶1 Defendant, Alfredo Manuel Gonzalez, appeals the district court’s judgment of conviction entered on jury verdicts finding him guilty of felony menacing, third degree assault (knowing/reckless), prohibited use of a weapon (under the influence), and two counts of disorderly conduct (discharge of a firearm in public and fighting in public). We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for correction of the mittimus. I. Background ¶2 One evening, Gonzalez went to a bar and had a conversation with John Kilgore, a fellow bar patron. A while later, Coreen Penniman — a woman Gonzalez had dated — arrived at the bar and sat with Kilgore. ¶3 Gonzalez made a few comments about Penniman — some positive and some negative — which eventually struck a nerve. Penniman told Gonzalez that she wanted to be left alone and never wanted to talk to him again. A short while later, Gonzalez and Kilgore had a tussle in the men’s bathroom after Gonzalez made another comment about Penniman. ¶4 The bar’s staff and patrons escorted Gonzalez and Kilgore out of the building and into the parking lot. Security camera footage 1  shows Gonzalez getting into his Jeep, Kilgore starting to approach the Jeep, and Gonzalez getting out and walking towards Kilgore. Kilgore hit Gonzalez with something. The blow knocked Gonzalez to the ground. When Gonzalez got up, he retrieved a gun from his Jeep, walked toward Kilgore again, and fired six shots into the air. Kilgore and others ran away. Gonzalez fired a seventh shot in Kilgore’s direction. ¶5 The People charged Gonzalez with attempted first degree murder (with a crime of violence sentence enhancer), felony menacing, third degree assault, prohibited use of a weapon, and two counts of disorderly conduct (discharging a firearm in public and fighting in public). ¶6 At trial, Gonzalez argued that he had acted in self-defense. The jury acquitted him of the attempted first degree murder charge, and the lesser included offense of attempted second degree murder, but found him guilty on all other counts. The district court sentenced him to two years in the custody of the Department of Corrections on the felony menacing conviction to run concurrently with a controlling 364-day jail sentence on the other convictions. 2  II. Self-Defense Jury Instruction A. Additional Background ¶7 Gonzalez was charged with a crime of violence sentence enhancer under section 18-1.3-406(2)(a)(I)(A), C.R.S. 2025, as to the attempted first degree murder charge because of his alleged use of a firearm during the attempt. The prosecution tendered a jury instruction defining “deadly weapon” as it related to the sentence enhancer. The tendered instruction read, “Deadly weapon means a firearm, whether loaded or unloaded.” ¶8 Defense counsel asked the court to include the full definition of deadly weapo