A Colorado truck driver’s 110-year prison sentence was reduced by Colorado Governor Jared Polis to just 10 years after socialite Kim Kardashian and 5 million others pleaded for clemency.
Rogel Aguilera-Mederos claimed his brakes failed when his semi-trailer truck barreled down a mountain on Interstate 70 near Lakewood, Colorado on April 25, 2019.
Aguilera-Mederos lost control and crashed, causing a 28-car pileup that killed four Colorado residents ranging in age from 24 to 69.
Aguilera-Mederos was arrested and charged with 4 counts of vehicular homicide.
Investigators say he burned out his semi-trailer truck’s brakes racing down the mountain and bypassed multiple runaway truck ramps designed to prevent the tragedy that would occur.
Prosecutors say Aguilera-Mederos thought only of saving himself when he plowed into the vehicles.
On Oct. 25, 2021 Aguilera-Mederos was sentenced to 110 years in prison under the state’s mandatory statutory minimum law. The judge said his hands were tied when handing down the stiff sentence.
But public outcry from truckers, Kim Kardasian, and 5 million signatures on an online petition convinced the governor to reduce Aguilera-Mederos’s life sentence.
Governor Polis commuted the 110-year prison sentence to ten years on Thursday, prompting Aguilera-Mederos to break down sobbing in open court.
His lack of action and major inexperience caused the death of four people.
He passed by at least 2 runaway ramps designed to slow runaway trucks like his…he could have ditched his runaway truck along ditches…but he didnt.
— tribute 776 ?? ?? ??????? (@Twilightseven) December 31, 2021
Inexperience is not a crime though, is it? I'm deeply saddened people died from this accident.
Seems to me this driver should share the burden with the people who were supposed to train him properly, maintain the vehicle etc.
He shouldn't go without penalty, but he's no criminal— Dr JJ Pope (@drjjpope) December 31, 2021
