The Daily Populous Tuesday December 21st, 2021 morning edition
Authored by abc7.com and submitted by Hellollie

EMBED >More News Videos "Your honor, I don't know why I'm alive." The Houston truck driver spoke emotionally in court as he was sentenced for a fiery crash that killed four people.

There's growing outrage in Colorado, where a truck driver was sentenced to 110 years in prison for a deadly pileup crash that happened in 2019. petition on change.org has been set up for Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, urging that the truck driver's 110-year sentence be lowered, commuted for time served or for clemency to be granted.As of Monday morning, more than 4.3 million people have signed that online petition. According to the website, if it reaches 4.5 million signatures, it will become the top signed petition ever on change.org, which is a popular petition website that offers people the ability to promote petitions they support.Also, truckers nationwide are showing their solidarity by threatening to stop moving goods to and from Colorado, using hashtags like #NoTrucksColorado and #DontDriveColorado to spread awareness on social media.In April 2019, Aguilera-Mederos was driving a semi tractor-trailer, traveling at 85 mph, when the brakes failed, he told investigators at the time. He tried to pull over to the shoulder to avoid stopped traffic, but another semi had already stopped there, according to an arrest affidavit.This resulted in a fiery 28-car pileup that killed four people on a highway in Denver. Aguilera-Mederos was sentenced last week after the 26-year-old was found guilty in October and convicted on vehicular homicide and 23 other charges.The other 23 charges included six counts of assault in the first degree -- extreme indifference; 10 counts of attempt to commit assault in the first degree -- extreme indifference; two counts of vehicular assault -- reckless; one count of reckless driving; and four counts of careless driving causing death.Legal experts say because Colorado did away with the death penalty, life in prison is the harshest punishment possible."Once you have 23 felonies with mandatory minimums that are served consecutively, that can quickly add up," explained Ian Farrell, a law professor at the Sturm College of Law - University of Denver.The change.org petition, which is titled "Offer commutation as time served, or grant clemency to Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos, 23" was created by a woman from Colorado who claims she has no relation to Aguilera-Mederos and is simply a supporter, according to the website."I made this petition because I am a native to Colorado, who believes this man is NOT a criminal and this was purely an accident," she wrote on a status update on Dec. 15. "I'm not related to Rogel, or any of his family, I simply believe that he doesn't deserve his sentence or these charges."The petition goes on to say, "Rogel has said several times that he wishes he had the courage to crash and take his own life that day, this tragic accident wasn't done with Intent, it wasn't a criminal act, it was an accident."A spokesperson for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said, "We welcome an application" from the defense "and will expedite consideration."Meantime, the families of those killed call the sentence appropriate under the law and say they're the real victims here.

Redye117 on December 21st, 2021 at 00:28 UTC »

I don't think the average person realizes how many inexperienced truck drivers there are on the road. I see so many drivers that come to my work with no situational awareness or understand what to do because of a language barrier. And these are people driving an 80,000 pound vehicle.

dalenar on December 20th, 2021 at 22:46 UTC »

I'd like to add something not mentioned in the article. As others have pointed out, this aggregate sentence was the result of a Colorado statute (§ 18-1.3-406) that mandates consecutive sentences for certain crimes. So it is correct that the sentencing judge had no discretion in this regard, as he acknowledged at the sentencing hearing.

That same statute, however, permits the trial court to revisit its sentence within 91 days, once the DOC has filed a diagnostic report, and gives the court discretion to modify the sentence downwards "in a case which it considers to be exceptional and to involve unusual and extenuating circumstances."

At Mr. Aguilera-Mederos' sentencing hearing, the prosecutor requested that the court set a hearing for this purpose. Three days ago (on 12/17), she filed a motion requesting the same. I am not able to link that motion here, but I expect (hope) that the media will report on it imminently so you don't have to take my word for it. This article at least acknowledges her remark that she would welcome a reconsideration of this sentence.

Also, to clarify, Mr. Aguilera-Mederos was convicted of the following crimes: six counts of first-degree assault with extreme indifference; ten counts of attempted first-degree assault with extreme indifference; four counts of vehicular homicide; two counts of vehicular assault; one count of reckless driving; and three counts of careless driving resulting in death. None of these are intentional crimes.

The convictions that were subject to mandatory consecutive sentencing were the first-degree assault convictions naming separate victims. He received 10 years for each of the completed counts and five years for each of the attempted counts, all of which I believe are minimum sentences individually, but resulted in a total of 110 years given the operation of the statute I mentioned above. All of his remaining sentences are concurrent, meaning they will be served simultaneously and therefore do not contribute to the overall 110-year sentence.

LightenUpPhrancis on December 20th, 2021 at 22:38 UTC »

The number of people misspelling “brakes” in this thread is too damn high.