Colorado Trucker's 110-Year Sentence Is Reduced After Major Opposition From Public

Jan 02, 2022 by apost team

After public outcry, Rogel Aguilera-Mederos's 110-year sentence has been reduced to 10 years by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. 

Previously, a petition on the popular website change.org has received a whopping 5 million signatures to reduce Aguilera-Mederos's 110-year sentence. Aguilera-Mederos is the semi-truck driver who was behind a deadly 28-car pileup in Colorado in April 2019, which led to the deaths of four people and caused immense damage overall. While the crash was deadly for others, Aguilera-Mederos walked away from the site with minor injuries. 

Aguilera-Mederos was a 23-year-old Cuban immigrant and Texas resident at the time of the accident and was sentenced in December 2021 on 24 charges, which included vehicular homicide. However, many people who signed the petition argued that such severe punishment is not required and that Aguilera-Mederos did not cause the accident on purpose. 

Aguilera-Mederos told the court that his brakes failed and that he even attempted to avoid a collision by pulling over to the shoulder. Unfortunately, another semi-truck had already stopped there and he could not pull to the side. The crash happened as he passed one of the state's runaway truck ramps.

The severity of his sentence and the different counts he has been charged with caused outrage across Colorado as well as across the United States, and the petition stated that "this tragic accident wasn't done with Intent, it wasnt a criminal act, it was an accident."

The petition was started three years ago but gained more traction recently after Aguilera-Mederos's sentencing. The number of signatures makes this petition one of the top signed petitions ever on change.org. The reduction in his sentence came on December 30, 2021. 

NPR reported that in October 2021, a jury found Aguilera-Mederos guilty of vehicular homicide and 23 other charges, including six counts of first-degree assault, 10 counts of attempt to commit assault in the first degree, two counts of vehicular assault, one count of reckless driving and four counts of careless driving. In December 2021, he was given the minimum sentence available on all counts which were to be served consecutively, totaling 110 years in prison. However, the people signing the petition and others have disagreed with the severity of the sentence. 

Bruce Jones, the district judge in the case, told CBS Denver that did not believe Aguilera-Mederos deserved life in prison but that Colorado law requires sentences for each count to be served consecutively instead of concurrently. "If I had the discretion, it would not be my sentence," Jones said. 

Along with stating that Aguilera-Mederos did not cause an accident on purpose, the petition added that he has no criminal history, passed all of his drug and alcohol tests and "complied with every single request" by case investigators and the courts. 

Aguilera-Mederos has also found support among other truckers, who have been threatening to stop moving goods to and from Colorado, using hashtags like #NoTrucksColorado and #DontDriveColorado to spread awareness on social media according to ABC7. 

When asked about how his case is being handled, NPR reported that a spokesperson for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis told them over email that the governor's office is "aware of this issue." The spokesperson also added, "The Governor and his team review each clemency application individually and we welcome an application from Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos and will expedite consideration but have not received one yet at this time."

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The update about Aguilera-Mederos's sentence came on December 30, 2021. CNN reported that Polis reduced the number of years that Aguilera-Mederos has to serve and called the original sentence "highly atypical and unjust." Aguilera-Mederos attracted support from the public as well as celebrities such as Kim Kardashian West. 

As well as adding that the sentence was unjust, Polis wrote his letter that the sentence was also "the result of a law of Colorado passed by the legislature and signed by a prior Governor and is not the fault of the judge who handed down the mandatory sentence required by the law in this case."

Colorado District Court Judge A. Bruce Jones, who read the sentence in December 2021, also said he was bound to the mandatory-minimum sentencing laws in the state. Polis's letter also read, "This case will hopefully spur an important conversation about sentencing laws, but any subsequent changes to the law would not retroactively impact your sentence, which is why I am granting you this limited commutation." 

James Colgan, one of the attorneys for Aguilera-Mederos, told CNN that he expects that Aguilera-Mederos will be taking the clemency offer by the governor. "Obviously, I think that that was the maximum sentence that Mr. Mederos should have received -- 10 years. And Mr. Mederos is of course extraordinarily grateful for the governor's decision," Colgan said. "I think that is a far more just reflection of what happened than the 110 years that he received."

There have been mixed reactions to the governor's decision, and while there have been those who believe true justice has finally been served, others continue to think that Aguilera-Mederos required a sentence that is more than 10 years. 

What do you think about the support for Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos? Do you agree that with the reduced sentence? Tell us your thoughts, and be sure to ask your friends what they think about it as well.