I am begging for forgiveness.I have never thought about hurting anybody in my entire life.” Truck drivers know this hard moment when you lose your brake. I was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. I was not out shooting up crowds or a school. “Please don’t be angry with me for saying I was not out robbing a bank or a store. “I was working hard for a better future for my family,” Aguilera-Mederos said. In an emotional address to the judge, he sobbed at his sentencing and pleaded for forgiveness. “There is an urgency to remedy this unjust sentence and restore confidence in the uniformity and fairness of our criminal justice system, and consequently I have chosen to commute your sentence now,” Polis wrote.Workers clear debris on Interstate 70 in Lakewood, Colo., from the 2019 pileup involving a semitrailer driven by Rogel Aguilera-Mederos (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)Īguilera-Mederos was found guilty on 27 counts and was sentenced to the minimum of 110 years under a Colorado sentencing law which considers first-degree assault and attempted first-degree assault as so-called “crimes of violence” which must run consecutively when pertaining to a single incident. Polis said the driver was “not blameless” but the 110 -year sentence was “disproportionate” compared with those who “committed intentional, premeditated, or violent crimes. The governor said the case would hopefully spur a discussion about sentencing laws, but he noted any future changes would not help Aguilera-Mederos. The crash killed 24-year-old Miguel Angel Lamas Arellano, 67-year-old William Bailey, 61-year-old Doyle Harrison and 69-year-old Stanley Politano. King at a court hearing on Monday had requested that the sentence be reduced to the 20-to-30 year range, arguing that leniency was warranted in the absence of criminal intent.ĭefence lawyer James Colgan called King’s move “disingenuous.” “Two weeks ago, they (prosecutors) were perfectly fine with my client getting 110 years until there was a public outcry,” he told the news agency Reuters after Monday’s hearing. First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King in a rare move for a prosecutor had asked the court to reduce the sentence for Aguilera-Mederos. “We are disappointed in the governor’s decision to act prematurely,” King said in a statement, adding that a final decision on Aguilera-Mederos’s fate should rest with a judge. Prosecutors had argued that as Aguilera-Mederos’s truck barreled down from the mountains, he could have used a runaway ramp alongside the interstate that is designed to safely stop vehicles that have lost control of their brakes.ĭistrict attorney Alexis King criticised Polis, saying the governor essentially short-circuited a more deliberative judicial process that prosecutors had begun in consultation with victims’ families and survivors. Judge Bruce Jones imposed the 110-year sentence on December 13 after finding it was the mandatory minimum term set forth under state law, noting it would not have been his choice. Video from the scene showed cars and trucks engulfed in flames, with fire shooting into the sky, and lumber scattered across the roadway. His truck ploughed into vehicles that had slowed because of another accident, setting off a chain-reaction crash and a fireball that consumed vehicles and melted parts of the highway. People rallied in support of truck driver Rogel Aguilera-Mederos at the state capitol on in Denver, Colorado, on DecemĪguilera-Mederos testified that he was hauling lumber when the brakes on his semitrailer vehicle failed as he was descending a steep grade of Interstate 70 in the Rocky Mountain foothills. More than five million people have signed an online petition seeking clemency for Aguilera-Mederos, who was convicted by a jury in October of four counts of vehicular homicide and multiple counts of assault and reckless driving in the explosive 2019 pileup that killed four people. The move comes days after a judge scheduled a hearing for January 13 to reconsider the sentence at the request of the district attorney who planned to ask that it be reduced to 20 to 30 years. The truck driver will be eligible for parole in five years, the governor said. The decision on Aguilera-Mederos’s sentence was among several year-end commutations and pardons issued by Polis on Thursday. Keep reading list of 4 items list 1 of 4 US: Judge to reconsider trucker’s 110-year prison sentence list 2 of 4 Driver in China successfully sues Tesla for fraud list 3 of 4 Dying for debt relief: Why are NYC taxi drivers on hunger strike? list 4 of 4 SEC charges NY lender to taxi drivers with fraud end of list
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