Boulder Vehicular Assault and Homicide Lawyer
A serious crash can transform a driver into a criminal defendant overnight. When someone is injured or killed in an accident involving alleged impairment or reckless driving, Colorado prosecutors do not wait. They move quickly, they build a case around physical evidence, and they treat vehicular assault and vehicular homicide in Boulder as among the most aggressively charged felonies on the docket. Reid DeChant has defended these cases from investigation through trial, and understands what it takes to fight back when the charge threatens to define the rest of your life.
What Colorado’s Vehicular Assault and Homicide Statutes Actually Say
Colorado defines vehicular assault under C.R.S. 18-3-205. The charge applies when a driver causes serious bodily injury to another person while operating a vehicle in a reckless manner, or while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Reckless vehicular assault is a Class 5 felony. If the prosecution adds impairment to the theory, it becomes a Class 4 felony with a presumptive sentencing range of two to six years in the Department of Corrections.
Vehicular homicide under C.R.S. 18-3-106 applies when a fatality results. Reckless vehicular homicide is a Class 4 felony. Add DUI as a factor, and the charge becomes a Class 3 felony carrying four to twelve years in prison. These are not suspended sentences and community service situations. Colorado mandates prison on Class 3 felony vehicular homicide convictions with a DUI element.
Serious bodily injury has a specific legal meaning in Colorado. It includes fractures, permanent disfigurement, loss of organ function, and injuries that substantially risk death. Prosecutors frequently argue over whether injuries cross that threshold, and the distinction between assault and homicide charges can sometimes turn on medical evidence developed weeks after the crash.
How Boulder Cases Get Built and Where the Evidence Actually Lives
Boulder County crashes that give rise to these charges often happen on Highway 36 between Boulder and Denver, on Canyon Boulevard heading into the mountains, on 28th Street through town, or on the stretches of US-287 south toward Louisville and Lafayette. The Boulder County Sheriff and Boulder Police Department both respond to major injury crashes, and what happens in the first hours matters enormously to how the case unfolds.
Law enforcement will typically reconstruct the crash using trained accident reconstruction experts. They will pull vehicle black box data, also called event data recorder information, to establish speed, braking, and steering inputs in the seconds before impact. They will subpoena cell phone records. They will obtain any available surveillance footage from nearby businesses or intersection cameras. They will document blood draw timing, chain of custody, and any field sobriety test results if impairment is alleged.
Blood evidence is particularly important to examine. Colorado’s express consent law requires drivers to submit to chemical testing, but the results are only as reliable as the process used to obtain and analyze them. Testing delays, contaminated samples, improper storage, and lab errors all create avenues to challenge BAC readings. Reid has focused significant training and experience on DUI and impaired driving charges, which forms a direct foundation for contesting the impairment element when it appears in a vehicular assault or homicide charge.
Accident reconstruction itself is not infallible. The methodology, the assumptions baked into the analysis, and the qualifications of the expert are all subject to scrutiny. Defense experts can sometimes reach materially different conclusions from the same physical evidence. Challenges to prosecution reconstruction testimony have changed outcomes in cases that looked closed on their face.
The Distance Between Reckless and Negligent Matters More Than Most People Realize
Felony charges under Colorado’s vehicular assault and homicide statutes require proof of recklessness, not mere negligence. Recklessness means the driver consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk. Negligence, which does not support a felony vehicular charge, means the driver failed to perceive a risk a reasonable person would have recognized.
That distinction is where a great deal of litigation happens. Speed alone, absent other factors, does not automatically establish recklessness. A driver who misjudged road conditions or reacted poorly in an emergency situation may not have acted with the conscious disregard required by statute. Prosecutors sometimes overcharge, knowing that a jury’s natural sympathy for a victim can obscure the required mental state. The defense job is to hold the prosecution to what the law actually demands.
In cases where impairment is alleged, the prosecution’s theory typically collapses the recklessness analysis into the act of driving while under the influence. The argument is that getting behind the wheel impaired is itself the reckless act. That theory has factual and legal limits, and challenging it requires dissecting both the stop, the investigation, and the reliability of any chemical testing conducted.
Questions People Ask About Vehicular Assault and Homicide Charges in Boulder
Can these charges be reduced or dismissed before trial?
Yes. Reductions happen through pretrial motions that challenge the sufficiency of the evidence, the legality of the stop or investigation, or the admissibility of expert testimony and chemical test results. Dismissals are less common but occur when the evidence does not support the charged offense. Prosecutors in Boulder County sometimes reduce charges when defense counsel identifies significant evidentiary problems early in the case.
What happens to my driver’s license when I am charged with vehicular assault or homicide?
A DUI-related felony vehicular charge triggers separate DMV action against your Colorado driving privileges. The criminal case and the DMV proceeding run independently. Losing one does not automatically determine the other, but the timelines overlap and require coordinated attention. Reid’s background handling DMV express consent hearings directly applies here.
Do I face mandatory prison time if convicted?
For vehicular homicide with a DUI element, Colorado law carries a mandatory prison sentence. For other vehicular assault charges, the sentencing range allows more judicial discretion, though probation is not guaranteed. Prior criminal history, the severity of injuries, and the specific facts of the case all affect what the prosecution seeks and what a court is likely to impose.
Can I be charged with vehicular assault even if I was not drunk?
Yes. The reckless version of the charge does not require impairment. Allegations of excessive speed, street racing, or grossly inattentive driving can support a vehicular assault charge without any alcohol or drug evidence. These cases often turn entirely on the accident reconstruction and the legal definition of recklessness versus negligence.
What if I was also injured in the same crash?
Your own injuries do not insulate you from prosecution, but they can be relevant to the facts of the case, including your ability to control the vehicle. They may also bear on mitigation at sentencing if the case proceeds that far. A thorough defense looks at all the circumstances, including what happened to everyone involved.
How long do these cases typically take in Boulder County District Court?
Felony vehicular cases in Boulder County District Court can take anywhere from several months to well over a year depending on the complexity of the evidence, the availability of expert witnesses, and court scheduling. Cases with significant accident reconstruction disputes or contested blood testing evidence tend to take longer because of the pretrial motion practice involved.
Will a conviction affect my immigration status?
A felony conviction in Colorado can have significant immigration consequences including deportation, inadmissibility, and bars to naturalization. If you are not a United States citizen, that dimension of the case must be considered from the beginning, not after a plea is entered.
Defending a Vehicular Homicide or Assault Charge in Boulder Requires More Than Legal Knowledge
Reid DeChant has handled serious criminal charges across Boulder, Denver, Adams, Jefferson, and Broomfield County courts. His time as a public defender put him in front of complex cases early in his career, including violent felonies where the stakes were real and the pressure to accept unfavorable outcomes was constant. What he took from that work was not just courtroom skill but the discipline to keep fighting when a case looks difficult.
Trial Lawyers College trained him to bring the story of the client into the courtroom, not just the legal arguments. In vehicular assault and homicide cases, the client’s full account of what happened, what they perceived, and what they experienced matters. Juries respond to truth, and a defense built on that foundation carries more weight than one constructed purely around technical objections.
These cases carry real consequences. Prison time, a permanent felony record, loss of driving privileges, and immigration exposure are all on the table. The defense starts at the beginning of the investigation, not after the charges are filed. Early contact with a Boulder vehicular assault attorney gives you the best position to contest the evidence before it hardens into a story the prosecution controls.
If you or someone you know is facing a vehicular assault or vehicular homicide charge in Boulder County, contact DeChant Law to talk through what happened and what a defense actually looks like for your situation.
