## Facts

- After a rural shooting incident, Paul Lesley Voth was charged with multiple offenses, including attempted second-degree murder and attempted first-degree burglary.
- A neighbor saw Voth shooting near his garage; when the neighbor called out, Voth fired toward him, leading the neighbor to retreat and call 911.
- Additional gunfire occurred, and Voth moved toward the neighbor’s home and attempted to enter it.
- Voth was arrested and taken to a hospital, where staff observed disorientation and visual and auditory hallucinations; the delirium later subsided.
- Clinicians suspected viral encephalitis as the source of the psychotic episode, though no definitive diagnosis was made.
- Voth pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity under Colorado’s insanity statute, triggering a court-ordered mental health evaluation.
- Voth also sought to assert involuntary intoxication, arguing that a virus is a “substance” causing intoxication under Colorado’s intoxication statute.
- The trial court orally ruled that a virus qualifies as a “substance” under the involuntary intoxication statute and allowed the defense.
- The prosecution sought extraordinary relief, asking the Colorado Supreme Court to vacate the trial court’s ruling.

## Issues

1. Whether a virus qualifies as a “substance” that can cause “intoxication” for purposes of the involuntary intoxication defense under Colo. Rev. Stat. § 18-1-804.
2. Whether a defendant may assert an insanity defense under Colo. Rev. Stat. § 16-8-101.5 when the claimed insanity was temporary (insane at the time of the offense but later regaining sanity).

## Decision

- The Colorado Supreme Court made the rule absolute and remanded for further proceedings.
- The Court held the trial court abused its discretion by ruling that a virus qualifies as a “substance” for involuntary intoxication under § 18-1-804.
- The Court clarified that Colorado law permits an insanity defense even where the insanity was temporary, so long as the defendant was legally insane at the time of the offense and meets the statutory requirements.

## Legal Principles

- For involuntary intoxication under Colo. Rev. Stat. § 18-1-804, “substance” does not include a virus; illness-based psychosis cannot be recast as statutory intoxication on that theory.
- A trial court abuses its discretion when it permits a defense based on an erroneous interpretation of the governing statute.
- Under Colo. Rev. Stat. § 16-8-101.5, insanity may be temporary; the statutory definition of insanity covers both temporary and longer-term episodes, and a later return to sanity does not bar the affirmative defense.

## Conclusion

The Colorado Supreme Court rejected involuntary intoxication based on a suspected viral infection, holding that a virus is not a statutory “substance,” and clarified that Colorado’s insanity defense remains available even when the defendant’s insanity existed only at the time of the charged conduct.


People v. Voth, 312 P.3d 144 (Colo. 2013)