Grand Junction Criminal Appeals Lawyer
A conviction is not necessarily the end of the road. Colorado’s appellate courts exist precisely because the trial process is imperfect, and Grand Junction criminal appeals lawyer Reid DeChant understands how to read a trial record with fresh eyes and find the issues that actually matter on appeal. Whether you received a verdict at trial or accepted a plea and are now questioning it, the appellate process gives you a defined window to challenge what happened below. That window closes fast, and what you do inside it determines whether you preserve any meaningful rights going forward.
What the Colorado Appellate Process Actually Looks Like for Grand Junction Cases
Criminal cases in Mesa County are tried in the 21st Judicial District. Once a judgment and sentence are entered there, an appeal goes to the Colorado Court of Appeals. If the Court of Appeals rules against you, a further petition to the Colorado Supreme Court is possible, though it involves a discretionary review process where the court picks which cases it hears. Federal constitutional claims can eventually reach the federal system through habeas corpus, but that path comes after state remedies are exhausted.
The appellate timeline in Colorado begins running from the date of sentencing. Notice of appeal must be filed quickly, and then the process shifts into a lengthy briefing schedule. The appellant files an opening brief identifying legal errors from the record. The prosecution files an answer brief defending the conviction. A reply brief typically follows. The court may then hear oral argument, though many Colorado appeals are decided on the written briefs alone. The entire process from notice of appeal to a decision frequently takes well over a year. That timeline is one reason to get appellate counsel involved early rather than waiting to see what happens.
Appellate courts do not re-try your case. There are no witnesses, no new evidence introduced, no second chance to tell your story from the witness stand. The court reviews the written record from below and applies a legal framework called the standard of review. Some errors get reviewed de novo, meaning the appellate court looks at the question fresh. Others are reviewed for abuse of discretion, which is harder to win. Understanding which standard applies to each issue in your case is part of what separates effective appellate work from a brief that argues everything and proves nothing.
Issues That Generate Real Traction on Appeal
Not every mistake at trial becomes a viable appellate issue. The record has to reflect the error, the error has to be legally cognizable, and in most cases it has to have been preserved by a timely objection at trial. An appellate lawyer’s job starts with reading the entire transcript and identifying which errors were preserved, which might qualify as plain error even if unpreserved, and which ones had a real effect on the outcome.
Some of the issues that produce meaningful results on Colorado criminal appeals include constitutional violations in how evidence was obtained, improper admission or exclusion of testimony and exhibits, prosecutorial misconduct during argument or witness examination, flawed jury instructions that misstated the law, sentencing errors including miscalculations under the presumptive ranges or improper aggravators, and ineffective assistance of trial counsel. That last category, ineffective assistance, often has to be raised through a separate post-conviction motion under Colorado Rule of Criminal Procedure 35 rather than on direct appeal, because the record at trial rarely captures what defense counsel did or failed to do outside the courtroom.
Plea agreements present a separate set of appellate and post-conviction issues. If you pled guilty without being properly advised of the consequences, if trial counsel gave you materially wrong information about the likely outcome, or if the plea was not made knowingly and voluntarily, there are vehicles to challenge it. These cases require honest analysis because courts apply significant deference to valid pleas, but that deference is not unlimited.
Why the Record Matters More Than Anything Else
Appellate practice is fundamentally a paper exercise. The record is the transcript of everything that happened at trial, the exhibits admitted into evidence, the written motions and court orders, and the reporter’s record of any hearings. If something is not in the record, it essentially did not happen for appellate purposes. This is why trial lawyers who know they may be heading to an appeal make very deliberate choices about what to put on the record and how to phrase their objections.
When reviewing a Grand Junction conviction, one of the first tasks is assessing whether the trial record is complete and whether there were critical moments where objections should have been lodged but were not. A missing or waived objection does not always kill an issue. Plain error review exists for certain serious constitutional violations that affect the fundamental fairness of the proceeding. But the showing required under plain error is substantially higher, and winning on that standard requires a different kind of brief.
Reid’s background as a public defender, where he handled cases from first appearance through trial on charges ranging from traffic matters to violent felonies, gives him a working understanding of how trial records are built and where they break down. That trial-level perspective matters when you are combing through thousands of pages of transcript looking for reversible error.
Post-Conviction Motions: The Other Path When Direct Appeal Is Closed
A direct appeal is not always available or appropriate. Sometimes the filing deadline passed before new counsel got involved. Sometimes the direct appeal already ran and was unsuccessful. Colorado’s Rule 35 post-conviction motions provide a separate mechanism to challenge an illegal sentence, to correct a sentence that was imposed without legal authority, or to raise ineffective assistance of counsel claims that depend on facts outside the trial record.
Rule 35(a) addresses illegal sentences and can be filed at any time. Rule 35(c) covers claims that the conviction or sentence violated the constitution or laws of Colorado or the United States. The timelines and procedural requirements for these motions are technical and have their own traps. Filing a 35(c) motion starts a clock on the one-year deadline, and claims that could have been raised on direct appeal are generally barred from being raised in a 35(c) motion. The layered nature of these procedural rules is one reason why post-conviction work benefits from someone who knows the specific procedural history of the case before recommending a path forward.
Questions About Criminal Appeals in Colorado
How long do I have to file a criminal appeal in Colorado after sentencing?
The deadline to file a notice of appeal in a Colorado criminal case is 49 days from the date of the final judgment. This deadline is jurisdictional, meaning the Court of Appeals lacks the power to hear the appeal if it is filed late. If you are approaching or have already passed this window, post-conviction options under Rule 35 may still be available depending on the nature of the claims.
Can new evidence be used on appeal?
Generally, no. Colorado’s appellate courts review what happened in the trial court based on the existing record. New evidence is not introduced at the appellate level. If you have new evidence that was unavailable at trial and would likely have changed the outcome, a post-conviction motion rather than a direct appeal is usually the better vehicle to raise it.
Does hiring an appellate lawyer mean I think my trial lawyer did something wrong?
Not necessarily. Most criminal appeals involve claims about rulings the judge made, not attacks on defense counsel. Ineffective assistance of counsel is a specific legal claim with a high standard, and raising it is distinct from simply arguing that a legal error occurred at trial. Many appeals succeed on grounds that have nothing to do with what defense counsel did.
What happens if the Court of Appeals agrees there was an error?
The remedy depends on what kind of error was found. Some errors result in the conviction being reversed outright if the evidence was legally insufficient. Others result in a remand for a new trial. Sentencing errors typically result in a remand for resentencing. The court may also find that an error was harmless and affirm despite it. Winning on appeal does not automatically mean the case is over.
Is it possible to appeal a guilty plea?
It depends on the plea agreement and what rights were reserved. Many Colorado plea agreements include a waiver of the right to appeal. However, certain constitutional claims, jurisdictional issues, and claims that the plea itself was not knowing and voluntary may survive a general appellate waiver. A Rule 35(c) post-conviction motion is often the more practical route after a plea.
How is an appeal different from asking the trial judge to reconsider?
A motion to reconsider is filed in the trial court and asks the same judge to revisit a ruling. An appeal is filed in a higher court and asks a different panel of judges to review whether the trial court’s decisions were legally correct. Both tools exist, but they serve different purposes and operate on different timelines. In many cases, a motion to reconsider must be filed before an appeal is even taken.
Talking to an Appellate Attorney About Your Grand Junction Case
If you were convicted in Mesa County or anywhere along the Western Slope and you have questions about whether the record supports a challenge, DeChant Law is available to review what happened and give you a straight answer about what options remain. The firm handles criminal appeals and post-conviction matters for clients in Grand Junction and across Colorado, with the same directness and willingness to fight that has driven results in the trial courts. Reaching out to a Grand Junction criminal appeals attorney sooner rather than later is the clearest way to understand what is possible before any remaining deadlines close off your options.