Colorado DA wants judge to review a 110-year prison sentence given to 26-year-old truck driver in deadly crash

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Colorado DA wants judge to review a 110-year prison sentence given to 26-year-old truck driver in deadly crash
Rogel Aguilera-Mederos was convicted in October of causing a fiery pileup that killed four people and injured six others on Interstate 70 west of Denver in April 2019. He was sentenced on Dec. 13 to 110 years in prison.Associated Press
  • A Colorado DA asked a judge to review a 110-year prison sentence handed to a truck driver.
  • Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, 26, was convicted in a fatal crash where he says his brakes failed.
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A Colorado district attorney has asked a judge to review a 110-year prison sentence given to a 26-year-old truck driver who says his brakes failed in a deadly 2019 crash.

Rogel Aguilera-Mederos was convicted on 27 counts in the crash, which killed four people in Jefferson County, Colorado. During sentencing on December 13, Judge A. Bruce Jones said state law required the sentences for those counts to be served consecutively, leading to a 110-year prison term.

More than 4.6 million people have since signed a petition asking Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to grant Aguilera-Mederos clemency. Kim Kardashian also urged Polis to commute Aguilera-Mederos' sentence on Twitter.

"I pray that Governor Polis, who has been a leader on supporting reforms that increase human dignity in the legal system, will commute his sentence," Kardashian wrote on Twitter.

Jefferson County District Attorney Alexis King filed a motion Tuesday asking a judge to review Aguilera-Mederos' sentence. The motion requested an expedited hearing as soon as December 24.

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"The purpose for the People's expedited request is so that the named victims in the case, as well as their families, have an opportunity to be heard by the trial court who is fully aware of the facts of the case," the motion reads.

King says in the motion that her office has talked to the families of the four victims in the crash, who want the court to hear their thoughts on sentence modification as quickly as possible.

Following Aguilera-Mederos' sentencing, King had released a statement scolding a prosecutor for social media posts "in poor taste." Deputy District Attorney Kayla Wildeman posted a photo of a brake shoe she received as a gift from a colleague on Facebook, leading Aguilera-Menderos' attorney to call for disciplinary action.

King released a statement that said she "addressed" the post internally and that the brake shoe was "not a piece of evidence from the case."

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