A Colorado appeals court has thrown out the attempted murder convictions of a man sentenced to 88 years in prison for a hatchet attack near Civic Center Park, ruling that the trial judge told jurors the wrong legal standard for what prosecutors had to prove. Efren Anthony Martinez was convicted of charges including two counts of attempted first-degree murder, assault, and related offenses after he struck and seriously injured two people with a hatchet in June 2020, during the height of civil unrest in downtown Denver following the murder of George Floyd.
A three-judge Colorado Court of Appeals panel ruled on October 8, finding that Denver District Court Judge Eric M. Johnson clearly erred by instructing jurors that Martinez's actions only had to be knowing, rather than deliberate and intentional, to convict him of attempted first-degree murder. As reported by the Denver Gazette, appellate judge Craig R. Welling wrote in the opinion that the jury applied a lower culpable mental-state standard than attempted first-degree murder actually required under Colorado law. Under state statute, attempted first-degree murder demands proof that a defendant acted after deliberation and with intent to cause death, while second-degree murder requires only that the person acted knowingly, according to Justia.
The mix-up wasn't just theoretical. During deliberations, the jury sent Johnson a note expressing confusion and asked for definitions of second- or third-degree attempted murder, according to the Gazette's reporting. Johnson responded that he would not provide instructions for additional offenses, and instead reiterated to jurors that Martinez would be guilty if he knowingly took a substantial step toward first-degree murder — the very language the appeals panel says was legally wrong.
Neither Side Objected at Trial
Notably, neither the defense nor the prosecution objected to the instruction at trial. The panel nevertheless found the error warranted reversal, given how directly it shaped the jury's confused deliberations.
The Colorado Attorney General's office, representing the prosecution on appeal, had agreed that Martinez's charge required proof he acted after deliberation and with intent, but argued the jury's finding that he acted knowingly was still enough to satisfy attempted second-degree murder. The appeals panel rejected that argument, declining the government's request to let Martinez remain convicted of the lesser offense instead of ordering a new trial.
A Lost Defense Option
Part of why the panel rejected that fix traces back to a defense that was never available at trial. Had Johnson properly instructed jurors on attempted second-degree murder as a distinct, lesser charge, Martinez could have asserted a heat-of-passion defense — a mitigator that applies only to second-degree murder and not to the attempted first-degree charge he actually faced, the court noted. Neither the defense nor prosecution had requested that Johnson instruct the jury on attempted second-degree murder in the first place. Under Colorado Revised Statutes, that heat-of-passion mitigator can reduce the crime from a Class 2 felony to a Class 3 felony, carrying a reduced sentence range of 4 to 12 years, according to legal reference site Jury Trial Co. By contrast, criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder is itself a Class 2 felony with a presumptive sentence of 8 to 24 years per count, which can stretch to 48 years under crime-of-violence enhancements, per the Colorado General Assembly's sentencing guide.
The reversal leaves Martinez's separate felony assault convictions completely intact — only the attempted murder counts were overturned, the Gazette reported. That means regardless of what happens next, Martinez remains convicted of serious violent felonies tied to the 2020 attack. The panel rejected the government's request to let Martinez remain convicted of the lesser offense and ordered a new trial on the attempted murder counts.
Judge's Record Draws Scrutiny
Johnson, appointed to the 2nd Judicial District bench by Governor Jared Polis in May 2019 after 16 years as a deputy district attorney and a stint practicing federal immigration law, has faced repeated appellate pushback in the past year. In August 2025, a separate three-judge Court of Appeals panel unanimously reversed Johnson in a different case, People v. Kelley, after he denied a sentence reduction by claiming he stood by his original ruling — even though he had not been appointed to the bench until a year after that original sentencing, according to Colorado Politics. The Colorado Attorney General's office reportedly conceded in that case that Johnson's order contradicted the court record.
That same month, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in Clark-Collins v. District Court that Johnson exceeded his authority by unilaterally shortening a juvenile defendant's reverse-transfer hearing from three days to half a day without evaluating the statutory transfer factors, Colorado Politics also reported.
With the Court of Appeals now ordering a new trial on the attempted murder counts, the case returns to Denver District Court, where prosecutors must decide whether to retry Martinez or resolve the matter with a plea to the lesser charge.
