The governor of Colorado on Thursday, December 30, 2021, reduced the 110-year prison sentence of truck driver Rogel Aguilera-Mederos to just 10 years, calling the lengthy penalty for a fatal roadway accident “unjust.”
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Governor Polis wrote to the trucker Rogel Aguilera-Mederos;
“I am writing to inform you that I am granting your application for a commutation. After learning about the highly atypical and unjust sentence in your case, I am commuting your sentence to 10 years and granting you parole eligibility on December 30, 2026.”
Rogel Aguilera Mederos accident explained
In 2019, Aguilera-Mederos, 23, crashed his truck into stopped traffic on I-70 near Denver, Colorado, killing four people and injuring others in a 28-vehicle pileup.
Aguilera-Mederos claimed that his brakes failed. However, police noted he was driving 85 mph in a 45 mph zone and went past a runaway truck ramp before the crash.
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Those who lost their lives were; Doyle Harrison, 61, William Bailey, 67, Miguel Angel Lamas Arrellano, 24, and Stanley Politano, 69.
In December 2021, the trucker was sentenced to 110 years in prison as a result of 27 separate charges, the strongest of them felony assault. Judge A Bruce Jones, who oversaw the case, said he didn’t want to give the Cuban immigrant what was effectively a life sentence, but Colorado law required him to assign the prison terms to be served consecutively rather than concurrently.
While in court earlier in the year, Aguilera-Mederos was in tears as he reflected on the tragedy.
“Your honour I don’t know why I’m alive. Like for what? … I ask God too many times why them and not me? Why did I survive that accident?” he said, adding that he was “not a criminal” and was “sorry” for the trauma he has caused.
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