{"id":1175469,"date":"2021-12-31T12:19:40","date_gmt":"2021-12-31T17:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1175469"},"modified":"2021-12-31T12:19:42","modified_gmt":"2021-12-31T17:19:42","slug":"colorado-governor-reduces-110-year-sentence-for-truck-driver-who-killed-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/colorado-governor-reduces-110-year-sentence-for-truck-driver-who-killed-four\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Governor Reduces 110-Year Sentence For Truck Driver Who Killed Four"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcolorado-governor-reduces-110-year-sentence-for-truck-driver-who-killed-four%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1175469&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A truck driver who was sentenced to 110 years in prison for his role in a deadly crash has had his sentenced reduced by Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO).<\/p>\n<p>Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, a 26-year-old truck driver from Texas, was given the lengthy sentence due to Colorado law following the deadly crash. Aguilera-Mederos maintains that his brakes failed on a downhill grade outside Denver, causing him to fatally strike four people. During his trial, prosecutors argued that Aguilera-Mederos acted recklessly in his decisions prior to the deadly crash.<\/p>\n<p>Aguilera-Mederos was traveling an estimated 85 mph on a stretch of road with a 45 mph speed limit for commercial vehicles. He was sentenced to 110 years in prison for a 28-car crash and fire caused by his failed breaks.<\/p>\n<p>Millions signed a petition to argue that Aguilera-Mederos\u2019 sentence was too steep and on Thursday, Gov. Polis agreed, calling the crash a \u201ctragic but unintentional act,\u201d NBC News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/truck-driver-sentence-reduced-110-years-10-years-colorado-governor-fat-rcna10494\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile you are not blameless, your sentence is disproportionate compared with many other inmates in our criminal justice system who committed intentional, premeditated, or violent crimes,\u201d Polis wrote in a letter addressed to Aquilera-Mederos.<\/p>\n<p>Polis added that the case \u201chighlights the lack of uniformity between sentences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was a tragic event that affected many Coloradans,\u201d Polis wrote, according to NBC. \u201cThough your actions have caused immense pain, I am encouraged by your personal reflection and the commercial vehicle safety changes that were made in the wake of this tragedy to ensure this type of event never happens again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More from NBC:<\/p>\n<p><em>First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King told reporters Monday that the case was \u201cexceptional\u201d and that it required \u201can exceptional process.\u201d Her office was seeking to resentence him to 20 to 30 years, instead.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe have and will take the necessary steps for the court \u2014 who is the most informed about what happened in this case \u2014 to strike the appropriate balance when considering a new sentence,\u201d King said.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>At the initial sentencing, Judge A. Bruce Jones said the law required him to sentence Aguilera-Mederos to consecutive sentences, meaning they are served back to back.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIf I had the discretion, if I thought I had the discretion, I would not run those sentences consecutively,\u201d Jones said.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Following Aguilera-Mederos\u2019 steep sentencing, a Change.org petition was started with more than five million people demanding his sentence e reduced.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis accident was not intentional, nor was it a criminal act on the drivers part. No one but the trucking company he is\/was employed by should be held accountable for this accident,\u201d said the petition, which was started by a woman named Heather Gilbee.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to Polis\u2019 letter reducing Aguilera-Mederos\u2019 sentence, The Denver Post editorial board <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2021\/12\/15\/i-70-trucker-110-years-sentence-aguilera-mederos-unjust-clemency-commute\/\">called on<\/a> the governor to commute the sentence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not intending to undermine the verdict from the jury \u2014 Aguilera-Mederos did indeed kill four people and seriously injure others in a tragic and preventable crash,\u201d the editorial board wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut we do think there is an important distinction that the law, as written, did not allow jurors or the judge to make,\u201d they added. \u201cThe 26-year-old was not drunk. He was not intentionally driving recklessly because he was in a hurry or out for a thrill or running from police. He was not even full of road rage as his semi-truck accelerated down Interstate 70 out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A truck driver who was sentenced to 110 years in prison for his role in a deadly crash has had his sentenced reduced by Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO). Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, a 26-year-old truck driver from Texas, was given the lengthy sentence due to Colorado law following the deadly crash. Aguilera-Mederos maintains that his brakes failed &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1175469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1175469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1175469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1175469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1175469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}