By STEVEN K. PAULSON Associated Press Writer
DENVER (AP) - A foot can become a deadly weapon, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday, overturning a lower court's decision.
"Objects which are not inherently deadly, such as feet and hands, can become deadly weapons when used to start an unbroken, foreseeable chain of events capable of producing serious bodily injury or death," the Supreme Court said Monday.
The ruling came in the case of Christopher Saleh, who was convicted of reckless assault with a deadly weapon for kicking his girlfriend, Janise Apodaca, down a flight of stairs in 1998. She suffered a broken wrist, a sprained ankle and a fractured pelvis and was hospitalized for six weeks.
An appeals court overturned the conviction and ruled it was third-degree assault, reasoning that the foot must be the instrument that caused the serious bodily injury in order to qualify as a deadly weapon.
