Colorado Judge To Consider Lowering Trucker’s 110-Year Sentence After 6 Million People Sign Petition
A truck driver sentenced 110 years for a 2019 crash that killed four people appears to have a chance at a reduced prison term.
The Associated Press reports that Colorado District Court Judge Bruce Jones on Monday (Dec. 27) scheduled a hearing for Jan. 13 to reconsider Rogel Aguilera-Mederos’ lengthy sentence, amid outcry from the public and a request from the prosecutor to take a second look at the original sentence.
Aguilera-Mederos, 26, was found guilty on 27 counts for vehicular manslaughter after the brakes on his semi-truck failed, causing him to crash into stopped traffic on Interstate 70 west of Denver.
Jones sentenced the trucker on Dec. 13 to a 110-year sentence based on Colorado’s mandatory minimum sentencing law. “I will state that if I had the discretion, it would not be my sentence,” Jones said at the hearing on Monday.
Two weeks ago, First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King asked the court to hold a special status hearing to consider a more lenient sentence, CNN reported.
"On December 13, we requested the minimum sentence allowed by law and discussed with the court the statutory procedure permitting the court to reconsider its sentence in an exceptional case involving unusual and extenuating circumstances," King said in a statement, adding that reducing the sentence would not overturn the conviction.
The prosecutor argued during the trial that he should have used a runaway ramp designed for trucks descending steep grades of Interstate 70 in the Rocky Mountain foothills. She’s seeking a term of 20 to 30 years, according to the AP.
The prosecutor’s request for the reconsideration hearing came against a backdrop of public protest about what amounted to a life sentence for the accident. By Dec. 27, more than 6 million people signed an online Change.org petition seeking clemency for Aguilera-Mederos.
Kim Kardashian West weighed in on the case through a series of tweets, urging the governor to get involved. “Colorado law really has to be changed and this is so unfair. @GovofCO is a really good person and I know he will do the right thing,” she tweeted.
A social media user pointed to a glaring disparity involving the sentencing of Ethan Couch, a trucker who killed four people while driving drunk. Couch, who fled the country in 2018, was only given 10 years probation and even later had to serve 720 days in jail for violating his probation in comparison to Aguilera-Mederos.
The sentence also prompted a call for a trucking boycott of Colorado to get Governor Jared Polis to grant Aguilera-Mederos clemency or commute part of his sentence.
At the hearing on Monday, Aguilera-Mederos’ lawyers, James Colgan, said the defense needed some time to research similar cases that could help guide the court’s approach to possible resentencing.
