delivered the Opinion of the Court.
11 Esquivеl-Castillo petitioned for review of the judgment of the court of appeals affirming his conviction of felony murder. People v. Esquivel-Castillo, No. 09CA1505,
12 Because one count of an information is not cirenmseribed by another count of that information unless the latter is incorporated in the former by clear and specific reference, the crime of kidnapping alleged more generally as an element of felony murder was not limited to the specific аlternative act of kidnapping alleged in the separate kidnapping count, and therefore jury instructions as to all statutory forms of kidnapping supported by the evidence did not constructively amend the felony murder charge, The judgment of the court of appeals is therefore affirmed.
L.
183 - Salvador - Esquivel-Castillo - was charged by information with separate counts of first degree (felony) murder, second degree murder, and first degree kidnapping, A jury aсquitted him of first degree kidnapping and the lesser offense of second degree kidnapping, but convicted him of felony murder and second degree murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, to be served concurrently with a 48-year sentence for second degree murder. 1
¶4 The charges arose from the disappearance and death of the defendant's former girlfriend and mother of one of his children, whose body was found buried near the home of one of the defendant's friends. The felony murder count of the information alleged that the defendant committed or attempted to commit "kidnapping" and that the victim's death was caused in the course of or in furtherance of that crime, or in immediate flight therefrom. By.contrast, although the separate kidnapping count involved the same victim and the same timeframe, it more specifically charged "first degree kidnapping," committed by forcibly seizing and carrying the victim from one place to another, with the intent thereby to force the victim or another person to make a concession or give up something of value in order to secure the victim's release. (Emphasis added).
¶5 Evidence was admitted at trial from which the jury could find that after the vie-tim sought to end her relationship with the defendant, the defendant abducted her and either forced or enticed her into his car, for the purpose of coercing her into marrying him, and ultimately killed her and buried her body. One witness recalled seeing the defendant push the victim into his car and drive off the evening before she was reported missing, while other testimony suggested that the victim may have briefly stepped out of the car at some point that evening and reentered under her own volition, but as the result of threats and intimidation by the defendant. Other evidence indicated that the victim's blood was found in thе lining of the defendant's trunk and that traces of vegetation matching the vegetation growing at the burial site were found on the defendant's clothing and the undercarriage of his car. . The defendant testified on his own behalf that he neither forced, threatened, nor intimidated the victim to enter his car on the night in question, but rather that she entered of her own accord; and that he did not kill her, but rather she died of a drug overdose while sitting in the passenger seat of his car, after which he buried her body out of fear that he would be suspected of her murder. _
T6 With regard to the separate charge of "first degree kidnapping," the jury was instructed that it would be permitted to return a verdiet of "guilty" only if it found, along with the other elements of first degree kidnapping, that the defendant seized and carried the victim from one place to another,
T7 The jury received separate verdict forms for the charges of first degree kidnapping and felony murder, 2 With regard to the former, the jury was also permitted to return a verdict of "guilty" as to the lesser offense of second degree kidnapping, should it find the defendant "not guilty" of first degree kidnapping. With regard to the felony murder charge, the jury was instructеd that if it were to return a verdiet of "guilty," it should, also answer an interrogatory, indicating the alternative statutory act or acts of kidnapping upon which its verdict was based,. The jury returned verdicts of "not guilty" as to first and second degree kidnapping, but a. verdict of "guilty" as to felony murder. The jury further answered the included interrogatory by indicating that it found the defendant committed kidnapping by enticing or persuading the victim to go from one place to another.
' 8 Sometime after the verdicts, the defendant moved for judgment of acquittal on the grounds that the information had not sufficiently charged the crime of which he was ultimately convicted. The district court denied the motion, ruling in the alternative that because felony murder was charged in terms of the "generic" erime of kidnapping, without incorporation of the specific count charging first degree kidnapping, no essential element. of the charging document had been altered after the trial had begun; and even if error, the pertinent jury instructions had not been objected to by the defense and, particularly in light of the defendant's testimony and theory of the case, could not rise to the level of plain error. Similarly, the court of appeals rejected the defendant's assertion that the jury instructions changed an element of the offense of felony murder, as charged, and therefore worked a constructive amendment of the information, for the reason that the law in this jurisdiction recognizes that one charge of an information is not limited by another charge unless the former charge expressly incorporates the latter charge, which clearly was not done in this case.
T9 The defendant petitioned this court for a writ of certiorari. -
IL.®
"[ 10 The requisites of an information have long been delineated by statute, see § 16-5-202(1), C.R.S. (2015) (derived from ch, 66, see. 2, 1898 Colo, Sess. Laws. 116, 116-17), and more reсently by court rule, see Crim. P.. 7(b)(2). An information is deemed sufficient if it can be understood therefrom: (1) that it is presented by the person authorized to prosecute the offense; (2) that the defendant is identified in one of the enumerated ways; (8) that the offense was committed or is triable in the jurisdiction; and (4) that the offense charged is set forth with a degree of certainty permitting the court to pronounce judgment upon a conviction. § 16-5-202(1); Crim. P. 7(b)(2).. Although our precise understanding of thеse. requirements has evolved over the years, we have character
{11 With regard to notice of the charges, an information is now considered sufficient if it advises the defendant of the charges he is facing such that he can adequately defend himself and be protected from further prosecution for the same offense. Cervantes v. People,
{12 The current rules of procedure abolish all demurrers and motions to quash, mandating instead that all defenses and objections basеd on defects in the institution of a prose-ecution or in the charging document, other than those asserting a failure to show jurisdiction in the court or to charge an offense, be made by motion within 21 days following arraignment. Crim. P. 12, A criminal defendant is entitled to seek greater specificity of even an adequate charge by moving for & bill of particulars within 14 days of arraignment or as permitted by the court, Crim. P. 7(g), and the court may permit an information to be amended as tо either form or substance any time prior to trial, Crim. P. 7(e). The court may also permit amendment as to form at any time before the verdict or finding, but only to the extent that no additional or different offense is charged and the substantial rights of the defendant are not prejudiced by any such amendment. Id.
$13 In the absence of an actual amendment, instructions permitting the jury to convict of an offense that is substantively different from any charged in the information are said to nevertheless work a "constructive amendment" of the information. See People v. Rodrigues,
114 Here, the defendant asserts that the felony murder count of the information was constructively amended by instructions permitting the jury to convict him of felony murder based on his cоmmission or attempted commission of kidnapping, in some way other than by seizing and carrying the victim from one place to another; and in light of the jury's finding of "not guilty" as to the offense of first degree kidnapping as separately charged, as well as the jury's answer to the interrogatory accompanying its felony murder verdict, he asserts that the record clearly indicates that the jury, not only potentially but in fact, conviécted him of a crime with which he had never been charged. The defendant reasons that although the felony murder count may have been charged with sufficient generality to encompass every alternative way of committing kidnapping, both first and second degree, the inclusion in the information of a separate count charging him with first degree kidnapping by seizing and carrying the vietim from one place to another
1[ 15 As the court of appéals recognized, we have long held in this jurisdiction that in order for one count of an information to be incorporated in another, the latter must contain a clear and specific reference to the former, See Martinez v. People,
16 The defendant, however, relies on a short line of сourt of appeals opinions for the proposition that a criminal - defendant charged with felony murder, including the specification by name of the "underlying," "ulterior," or "predicate" crime he is alleged to have attempted or actually committed, without further limitation, is nevertheless entitled to proceed on the assumption that he need only defend against a death caused in the course of, in furtherance of, or in flight from a crime of thе same generic designation, charged with greater specificity in a separate count of the information. See People v. Palmer,
T17 In Williams, we declined to follow precedent in this jurisdiction from an earlier period declaring the failure to specify, by name, the ulterior crime the defendant intended to commit for purposes of a charge of burglary, to bе a fatal defect. Id. at 61-63 & n.9 (declining to follow Gomez v. People,
(18 In a , pair of cases, the court of appeals extended our Wllhngness to consider possible рrejudice to a defendant's substantial rights resulting from a lack of particularity in alleging the specific intent required for burglary, to charges of felony murder, premised on the commission or attempted commission of burglary but lacking any express allegation of all the elements of burglary, including naming a specific crime the defendant intended to commit upon entry. See Palmer,
{19 Perhaps more importantly, even extending our reasoning in Williams to a predicate or undеrlying offense for purposes of felony murder, the court of appeals made clear that specifying one of the statutorily designated predicate offenses, which include both "burglary" and "kidnapping," see § 18-8-102(1)(b), CRS. (2015), serves to adequately allege the essential ulterior-crime-element of felony murder to avoid resulting in a fatal, substantive defect. See Palmer,
120 Because the felony murder charge in this case effectively tracked the language of the felony murder statute, including the allegation that the defendant committed or attempted to. commit "kidnapping," such charge was clearly. not substantively defective and provided the defendant with adequate notice of the charge against him. As such, instructing the jury, for purposes of the felony murder charge, on all statutory forms of kidnapping did not amount to instructing on an additional or different crime from the one charged and, therefore, did not constitute a constructive amendment.
' {21 We need 'not determine in this case whether a failure to allege by name а predicate offense for purposes of a felony murder charge, much less a failure to specify a particular - statutorily-designated - alternative method of committing that predicate offense, could be characterized as a "defect in form," with respect to which the defendant might still be entitled to relief notwithstanding his failure to make timely objection. - See Williams,
THL.
1 22 Because one count of an information is not cireumseribed by another count of that information unless the latter is incorporated in the former by clear and specific reference, the crime of kidnapping alleged more generally as an élement of felony murder was not limited to the specific alternative act of kidnapping alleged in the separate kidnapping count, and therefore instructing the jury concerning all forms of kidnapping supported by the evidence did not constructively amend the felony murder charge. 'The judgment of the court of appeals is therefore affirmed.