## Facts

- Two rival gangs operated in a Colorado community: Sicc Made and Most Hated.
- Brandon Jackson founded and belonged to Sicc Made; E.O. belonged to Most Hated.
- On December 24, 2011, E.O. shot and wounded a Sicc Made member.
- On December 25, Jackson and other Sicc Made members met and agreed to retaliate by trying to kill E.O.
- The group went to E.O.’s apartment complex and waited for him to return; E.O. drove a gold SUV.
- Around 3:00 a.m. on December 26, Y.M., who lived in the same complex, arrived and parked near E.O.’s apartment; Y.M. also drove a gold SUV.
- Mistaking Y.M. for E.O., a Sicc Made member shot Y.M. twice, killing him instantly.
- After realizing the mistake, the shooter fired additional shots into E.O.’s empty apartment.
- Jackson was indicted and tried for first-degree murder and other offenses; because he was not the shooter, the prosecution proceeded on a complicity theory as to Jackson.
- A jury convicted Jackson of first-degree murder for Y.M.’s death and, among other counts, attempted first-degree murder relating to the intended killing of E.O.; the court imposed a life-without-parole sentence plus consecutive terms.
- A division of the Colorado Court of Appeals vacated the attempted-murder conviction on double-jeopardy grounds, and the People sought review in the Colorado Supreme Court.

## Issues

1. Whether, in a mistaken-identity shooting that results in the death of the person shot, double-jeopardy protections permit convictions for both (a) first-degree murder of the person killed and (b) attempted first-degree murder of the intended target.
2. Whether Colorado law requires or allows the transferred-intent doctrine in first-degree murder cases, and whether that doctrine has any role in mistaken-identity scenarios.
3. If multiple convictions are impermissible under double jeopardy, what remedy applies to the duplicative conviction.

## Decision

- The Colorado Supreme Court held that, on these mistaken-identity facts, Jackson could not stand convicted of both first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder; the separate attempted-murder conviction was barred by double-jeopardy limits on multiple punishments for the same offense.
- The court disapproved the transferred-intent doctrine in Colorado first-degree murder cases because the statutory definition of first-degree murder makes that doctrine unnecessary.
- The court also explained that transferred intent is irrelevant in mistaken-identity cases, where the shooter intends to kill the person he actually shoots (even though he is wrong about the person’s identity).
- The court left the first-degree murder conviction intact and affirmed the disposition vacating the attempted first-degree murder conviction.

## Legal Principles

- Double jeopardy prohibits multiple convictions and punishments for the same offense unless the legislature has clearly authorized cumulative punishment.
- In a mistaken-identity homicide (the actor aims at, shoots, and kills the person in front of him while misidentifying that person), the event involves a single victim for the homicide; imposing an additional attempted-murder conviction for the “intended” victim constitutes an improper additional punishment on these facts.
- Colorado’s first-degree murder statute covers the intentional, deliberate killing of the person who is actually killed without resort to a transferred-intent fiction; therefore, transferred intent is not needed for first-degree murder liability in Colorado.
- Even apart from the statutory point, transferred intent does not fit mistaken-identity scenarios because the actor’s intent is directed at the person he shoots; the mistake is who that person is, not whether the actor tried to shoot someone else and accidentally hit a bystander.
- When double jeopardy bars cumulative punishment, the appropriate remedy is to vacate the duplicative conviction and correct the judgment and sentence accordingly.

## Conclusion

People v. Jackson holds that when a defendant (or complicitor) participates in a mistaken-identity killing, Colorado law supports a first-degree murder conviction for the person actually killed, but double jeopardy bars piling on a separate attempted first-degree murder conviction for the intended target; the court also rejected transferred intent as unnecessary for first-degree murder in Colorado and irrelevant to mistaken-identity cases.


People v. Jackson, 472 P.3d 553 (2020)