People v. McNeese
Colorado Supreme Court, En Banc
892 P.2d 304 (1995)
After Vivian moved out of McNeese's apartment following his unwanted advances, her common-law husband John and his friend came to the apartment to retrieve her belongings, and when John choked McNeese and threatened to kill him, McNeese fatally stabbed both John and his friend and wounded Vivian; the trial court dismissed the second-degree murder charge for John's death based on the make-my-day statute, focusing its analysis on whether John's entry violated the oral lease agreement barring him from the premises.
Whether, under Colorado's "make-my-day" law, a defendant is immune from prosecution if he establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that he used deadly force against another person who made an unlawful entry into the defendant's home and when the defendant had a reasonable belief that such person committed a crime, or intended to commit a crime, against a person or property within the dwelling.