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A Colorado appellate court panel on Thursday reversed a man's conviction on felony trespassing and other charges, saying a COVID-related courtroom closure violated his Sixth Amendment right to a public trial.

The opinion comes after the Colorado Supreme Court vacated an earlier appellate court decision in the case and remanded it, with panel judges citing opinions by the high court in two similar cases as well. The panel said prosecutors may retry defendant Gilberto Montoya for first-degree trespass, criminal mischief and failure to leave premises.

Alamosa County sheriff's deputies arrested Montoya in October 2020 after he allegedly broke into his sister's house and barricaded himself inside.

The court proceedings that followed were infused with pandemic precautions — courthouses were partially closed, jurors were distanced from one another, and members of the public could only view proceedings during livestreams, according to the appellate court opinion.

In November 2020, Montoya, who was pro se, sent a letter to the court objecting to all remote proceedings and requested that the courthouse remain open. This cut against prosecutors' claims that he had failed to object, the appellate court said.

In its opinion on Thursday, the panel pointed to two recent Colorado Supreme Court decisions. The first was in Rios v. People, where the state's high court held that virtual platforms are not substitutes for public access and that exclusively virtual trials constitute total closure.

However, in that case, the high court did not find any constitutional violations because the related closure met criteria set out in the U.S. Supreme Court's 1984 decision: It advanced an overriding interest likely to be prejudiced if the proceeding were open to the public; it was no broader than necessary to protect that interest; the court considered reasonable alternatives to the closure; and the court made adequate findings in support of the closure. As such, the conviction was not overturned.

In the second cited opinion, People v. Bialas, the state Supreme Court reversed the conviction of a man because a trial judge removed all spectators from the courtroom for a day and a half due to alleged misconduct by some. The high court found this closure unjustified by Waller's standards.

The closure at issue in Montoya's case met the first Waller standard but fell short of the rest, the appellate court said in its opinion on Thursday.

Judges Rebecca Freyre, Jaclyn Brown and Sueanna Johnson sat on the panel that reached the decision.

Montoya is represented by Megan Ring and Julieanne Farchione of the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender.

The government is represented by Philip Weiser and Sonia Russo of the Colorado Attorney General's Office.

The case is People v. Montoya, case number 21CA1539, in the Colorado Court of Appeals. 

--Editing by Philip Shea.