People v. Maestas

I. INTRODUCTION

We issued this rule to show cause to consider whether the trial court improperly refused to accept defendant Matthew G. Maes-tas's knowing, intelligent, and voluntary waiver of conflict-free counsel. 1 Colorado caselaw establishes that the court must give substantial deference to a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to his choice of counsel. In this case, Macstas expressed his preference to maintain Harvey Steinberg as his counsel; he repeated this preference both in conversations with the trial judge and in a valid written waiver of conflict-free counsel. Although a trial court…