Coston v. People

ROVIRA, Justice.

We granted certiorari from the Court of Appeals’ decision in People v. Coston, 40 Colo.App. 205, 576 P.2d 182 (1978), to consider the claim made by the petitioner-defendant, Jennerson Coston, that the district court erred when it refused to give his tendered jury instruction on manslaughter at the trial in which he was charged with first-degree murder 1 and convicted of second-degree murder. 2 The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s ruling that there was no evidence to justify such an instruction, and we affirm the Court of Appeals.

I

At trial the defendant was…