Practice Area
Assault, menacing, robbery, and homicide carry Colorado’s heaviest sentences, and some require prison. What happened before the first blow, and whether you were defending yourself, matters from day one.
Both of our founding partners started their careers as prosecutors. Before co-founding Smith & Weidinger, Bradley Smith served as a Deputy District Attorney in Mesa County and as a Denver Assistant City Attorney. We know how prosecutors decide whether to charge an assault as a misdemeanor or a felony, and whether to add a crime-of-violence count, because those decisions turn on evidence we can test.
We defend violent crime charges from our offices in Denver (1040 S. Gaylord St.) and Colorado Springs (415 N. Tejon St.), and in courts across Colorado. We’ve resolved a felony assault in El Paso County with a deferred judgment and no jail, had assault, menacing, and false imprisonment charges dismissed in Denver and Eagle counties, and won not-guilty verdicts at assault trials in Fremont and Clear Creek counties. You’ll work directly with the lawyer handling your case, not a call center.
The same incident can be charged several ways. The injury, any weapon, and the intent alleged decide the level.
Colorado felony sentences follow presumptive ranges: 8 to 24 years for a class 2 felony, 4 to 12 for class 3, 2 to 6 for class 4, 1 to 3 for class 5, and 1 year to 18 months for class 6, each followed by mandatory parole. Misdemeanors top out at 364 days for class 1 and 120 days for class 2. Probation is available for many offenses at every level.
The math changes when a case is charged as a crime of violence. That usually means the prosecution alleges you used or threatened someone with a deadly weapon, or caused serious bodily injury or death. A crime-of-violence conviction requires prison, with a sentence between the midpoint and twice the top of the range, and no probation. Whether that count stays in the case is often the most important question in the negotiation.
Colorado law lets you use physical force to defend yourself or someone else from what you reasonably believe is the use or imminent use of unlawful force, and to use the degree of force you reasonably believe is necessary (C.R.S. 18-1-704). Deadly force is justified only when you reasonably believe less force won’t do, and that you or someone else is in imminent danger of death or great bodily injury. If you weren’t the initial aggressor, Colorado doesn’t require you to retreat first.
For most assault charges, once there’s some credible evidence you acted in self-defense, the prosecution has to disprove it beyond a reasonable doubt. For charges based on recklessness or negligence, the jury still weighs the self-defense evidence in deciding how you acted. Either way, the defense lives in the details: who moved first, what was said, what each person could see. Those details fade fast. Keep messages, photos, and witness names, and let your lawyer do the talking.
Colorado criminal defense
The first decisions in these cases, like bond, protection orders, and what you say, are the hardest to undo. Get a confidential consultation with a Colorado defense attorney. Not a screener.
Your information stays private.
Not a call center.
We know both sides.
Your criminal defense attorney
Bradley E. Smith
Founding Partner
Criminal Defense Attorney
Former Deputy District Attorney in Mesa County and Denver Assistant City Attorney. More than six years as a U.S. Navy officer overseas, in Japan, East Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law and a bachelor’s degree from CU Boulder. Licensed in Colorado state and federal courts.
That prosecutorial background matters in a specific way. Prosecutors often start with the highest charge the report supports and expect to negotiate down. A lawyer who has made those charging decisions knows which facts move them: an injury that isn’t “serious bodily injury” under the statute, an object that isn’t a deadly weapon, a witness whose account changed.
We look for those first, before anyone talks about a plea.
Every violent crime case turns on a few pieces:
Self-defense and defense of others depend on who was the aggressor and what each person reasonably believed. We rebuild the sequence from video, 911 calls, and witnesses.
The line between bodily injury and serious bodily injury is often the line between a misdemeanor and a felony. We read the medical records ourselves.
Whether an object was a deadly weapon, and whether it was used or just present, drives both the charge and the sentence.
In crowded bars, parking lots, and parties, who did what is often less clear than the report makes it sound.
Getting that designation dropped can open the door to probation.
We look at all of it. Then we decide, with you, whether to file motions, negotiate, or try the case.
The order below is the shape of most Colorado criminal cases. Where your case sits in it determines what can still be changed.
You will be advised of the charges, usually within 48 hours. You do not have to explain yourself to anyone, and you should not. The single most common way a defensible case becomes a difficult one is a statement given before a lawyer was involved.
The court sets bond considering the charge, your record, your ties to the community, and any perceived risk. Bond can be argued, and bond can be reduced after it’s set. A lawyer at that hearing is the difference between a number and an argument.
In any domestic violence case, a mandatory protection order issues immediately. It can bar you from your own home and from contact with your family. It can be modified — but only through the court, never by agreement with the other party.
We obtain everything the state has: reports, body camera footage, dispatch audio, lab results, officer histories. We also build what the state didn’t bother to — witnesses they never interviewed, video they never pulled.
Suppression of an unlawful stop, an unlawful search, or an involuntary statement can end a case outright. Several of our dismissals came at or immediately after a motions hearing.
Most cases resolve. Some should not. We prepare every case as though it will be tried, because that preparation is what produces the better offer — and because when a case should go to a jury, we are ready.
Recent outcomes in assault and violent crime cases.
Resolved with a deferred judgment and no jail.
Jury found our client not guilty of all charges.
Jury acquitted our client. Case sealed.
Assault case dismissed.
Dismissed after a motions hearing. Case sealed.
Illegal assault weapon possession case resolved with a fine only.
Results depend on the specific facts and legal circumstances of each case. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome.
Unedited, from our Google profile.
Reviews are published on Google by the people who wrote them. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
These come up in almost every call about an assault or violent crime charge. The answers below are general. The facts, the injuries, and your record decide how they apply to you.
No. Third-degree assault is a class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. An assault becomes a felony charge when the injury is serious, a deadly weapon is involved, or other aggravating facts are alleged.
It’s a sentencing designation, not a separate crime. It usually applies when the prosecution alleges a deadly weapon was used or threatened, or someone suffered serious bodily injury or death. It means mandatory prison, which is why we fight hard to keep it out of the case.
If you reasonably believed you or someone else was facing unlawful force, and you used the force you reasonably believed was necessary, yes. Once there’s evidence of self-defense on most assault charges, the prosecution has to disprove it beyond a reasonable doubt.
Not automatically. In Colorado, the prosecutor decides whether a case goes forward. But the other person’s account and wishes can matter a great deal, and we make sure the prosecutor hears them.
Usually, yes. Federal law bars anyone convicted of a felony from possessing firearms, and Colorado’s own ban covers most violent felonies. A misdemeanor domestic violence conviction also triggers a federal ban.
Usually not. Colorado excludes crimes of violence, class 1–3 felonies, and domestic violence from ordinary sealing. Dismissed cases and acquittals can generally be sealed, and some misdemeanors can be sealed after a waiting period.
