2021 Colorado Code
Title 18 - Criminal Code
Article 3 - Offenses Against the Person
Part 2 - Assaults
§ 18-3-208. Reckless Endangerment
[ ] A person who recklessly engages in conduct which creates a substantial risk of serious bodily injury to another person commits reckless endangerment, which is a class 3 misdemeanor.
Editor's note: This version of this section is effective until March 1, 2022.History. Source: L. 71: R&RE, p. 421, § 1. C.R.S. 1963: § 40-3-208 . L. 2021: Entire section amended,(SB 21-271), ch. 462, p. 3173, § 196, effective March 1, 2022.
Editor's note:
Section 803(2) of chapter 462 (SB 21-271), Session Laws of Colorado 2021, provides that the act changing this section applies to offenses committed on or after March 1, 2022.
ANNOTATIONLaw reviews. For article, “Mens Rea and the Colorado Criminal Code”, see 52 U. Colo. L. Rev. 167 (1981). For article, “The Legal Risks of AIDS: Moving Beyond Discrimination”, see 18 Colo. Law. 606 (1989).
Offense not lesser included offense of third degree assault. The establishment of every element of third degree assault would not necessarily include proving conduct which creates a substantial risk of serious bodily injury, an element of reckless endangerment. Third degree assault requires proof of bodily injury but not proof of a substantial risk of serious bodily injury. Therefore reckless endangerment is not a lesser included offense of third degree assault. People v. Berner, 42 Colo. App. 520, 600 P.2d 112 (1979).
Trial court did not err by refusing to instruct the jury on the lesser nonincluded offense of reckless endangerment, because there was no rational basis upon which the jury could have convicted defendant of that offense and acquitted him of child abuse resulting in death. People v. Cauley, 32 P.3d 602 (Colo. App. 2001).
There is no right to a jury instruction on a lesser included offense if the element that distinguishes the greater from the lesser is uncontested. Where it is undisputed that death occurred as a result of defendant's conduct, there is no right to an instruction on reckless endangerment in a reckless manslaughter case. People v. Hall, 59 P.3d 298 (Colo. App. 2002).
Applied in People v. Sepeda, 196 Colo. 13 , 581 P.2d 723 (1978); Perea v. District Court, 199 Colo. 27 , 604 P.2d 25 (1979); People v. McPherson, 200 Colo. 429 , 619 P.2d 38 (1980).
