DENVER (NewsNation Now) — Millions of Americans have signed an online petition demanding leniency for Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, a 26-year-old truck driver who was sentenced to 110 years in prison for a vehicular homicide in an explosive accident at the base of a Colorado mountain highway that killed four people in 2019.
As of Tuesday, more than 4.5 million people had signed the change.org petition urging Gov. Jared Polis to grant clemency or commute Aguilera-Mederos’ sentence. Truckers nationwide have voiced outrage over the sentence on Twitter, using the hashtags #NoTrucksToColorado and #NoTrucksColorado, among others.
A Colorado district attorney has also filed a motion to reconsider the sentence. Jefferson County District Attorney Alexis King filed a motion Friday, asking the court to set a hearing to reconsider the sentence. A spokesperson for the DA’s office said this action “essentially reopens the case.”
The motion states, “As Colorado law required the imposition of the sentence in this case, the law also permits the Court to reconsider its sentence in an exceptional case involving unusual and extenuating circumstances.”
This comes after Polis confirmed in a news conference Tuesday that the lawyer for Aguilera-Mederos turned in a clemency application to his office. Polis said the application is being reviewed.
“We just received Rogel Aguilera-Mederos’ application and our legal team is currently reviewing it. Once we reach a decision, we will make an announcement,” a spokesperson for Polis said Tuesday.
Criminal defense attorney David Beller told NewsNation’s Leland Vittert that he does not believe Aguilera-Mederos should get a life sentence.
“This is a clear case of the district attorney choosing to overcharge the case,” Beller said during his “On Balance” appearance Tuesday. “The district attorney charged this case as though it wasn’t simply a traffic accident, but rather was an act of murder.”
Beller added, “And when you charge the case the way they did, it ties the judge’s hands. If the jury convicts, the judge has very, very, very little discretion … and the judge gave the absolute minimum sentence and that was 110 years.”
Beller also applauded King’s motion to reconsider the case.
“I am thrilled that the district attorney … and kudos to her … is listening to the public and realizes that this is absolutely, completely and totally unjust.” Beller said that this case also helps put the spotlight on Colorado’s mandatory-minimum sentencing laws and the district attorney’s ability to use and abuse these laws.
“It demands that legislatures look at these laws … [it] looks at the power … being given to the district attorney and chooses to take away and or limit some of that power, so that this isn’t happening to defendants across the country, and so that the taxpayer is not paying to incarcerate people for a lifetime when the crime does not fit the punishment.”
You can watch the rest of Leland’s interview with Beller in the video player down below.
One of the jurors, who remained anonymous, also spoke exclusively to NewsNation affiliate KDVR-TV about Aguilera-Mederos’ sentencing.
“I cried my eyes out … in my eyes, that sentence is one-hundred-fold (greater than) what it should have been.”
Aguilera-Mederos was convicted in October of vehicular homicide and other charges stemming from the April 25, 2019 crash. He testified that he was hauling lumber when the brakes on his semitrailer failed as he was descending a steep grade of Interstate 70 in the Rocky Mountain foothills.
His truck plowed into vehicles that had slowed because of another wreck in the Denver suburb of Lakewood. He was traveling at least 85 mph on a part of the interstate where commercial vehicles are limited to 45 mph.
The chain-reaction wreck involving 28 vehicles ruptured gas tanks, causing a fireball that consumed vehicles and melted parts of the highway.
The juror said he believes the judge should have given Aguilera-Mederos’ a more suitable sentence, even though he was responsible for the accident.
“There is something wrong when laws are written to where a judge can’t intervene in some way … the way this is written is not right.”
The juror also said that he understands the families’ feelings about the accident, but Aguilera-Mederos should be given less time.
“I don’t think the governor should offer clemency and let him off … but this would be a more suitable sentence for what had happened,” the juror added.
Prosecutors argued that as Aguilera-Mederos’ truck barreled down from the mountains, he could have used a runaway ramp alongside the interstate that is designed to safely stop vehicles that have lost their brakes. Aguilera-Mederos testified he was struggling to avoid traffic and to shift his truck into lower gear to slow it down.
In imposing the sentence, District Court Judge Bruce Jones said it was the mandatory minimum term set forth under state law — and suggested a lesser punishment was warranted. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws required that sentences on 27 counts of vehicular assault, assault, reckless driving and other charges run consecutively.
“I will state that if I had the discretion, it would not be my sentence,” the judge said.
The crash killed 24-year-old Miguel Angel Lamas Arellano, 67-year-old William Bailey, 61-year-old Doyle Harrison and 69-year-old Stanley Politano.
The story has garnered enough attention nationally that Kim Kardashian West has asked Polis to commute Aguilera-Mederos’ sentence.
Relatives of victims said at Aguilera-Mederos’ sentencing that he should serve time for the crime.
Duane Bailey, the brother of William Bailey, asked the judge to sentence Aguilera-Mederos to at least 20 years, the Post reported.
“He made a deliberate and intentional decision that his life was more important than everyone else on the road that day,” Bailey said.
Bailey’s wife, Gage Evans, told The New York Times the driver’s sentence shouldn’t be commuted but that lawmakers should instead examine the sentencing laws.
“This person should spend some time in prison and think about his actions,” Evans said, adding she and other victims’ relatives object to a “public narrative” that Aguilera-Mederos is a victim. “We are truly the victims,” she said.
Aguilera-Mederos wept as he apologized to the victims’ families at his sentencing. He asked for their forgiveness.
“I am not a murderer. I am not a killer. When I look at my charges, we are talking about a murderer, which is not me,” he said. “I have never thought about hurting anybody in my entire life.”
The Associated Press and NewsNation affiliate KDVR contributed to this report.