Protesters gathered outside Colorado’s state capitol to protest the 110-year sentence of Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, who was found guilty of a deadly 2019 truck crash.
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Dozens gathered outside Colorado’s Capitol building in protest of the 110-year sentence given to a Houston truck driver found guilty in a 2019 deadly car pile-up.
“Whether that’s clemency in the form of a partial commutation or some other action, we’re asking that Governor Polis review that case,” said Democratic state Sen. Julie Gonzales Wednesday.
Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, who was 23 at the time of the crash, was sentenced in Colorado last week to 110 years in prison after he was found guilty on 27 counts in the 2019 crash that killed four people and injured others.
JUROR IN COLORADO TRUCK CRASH CASE SAYS 110-YEAR SENTENCE ‘NOT RIGHT’: ‘CRIED MY EYES OUT’
Investigators of the crash said Aguilera-Mederos lost control of the semi-truck after its brakes failed on a highway near Denver. The truck failed to take runaway truck ramps and was going about 85 miles per hour before it slammed into dozens of other cars that were stopped on the highway, causing an explosion .
Prosecutors argued that Aguilera-Mederos could have used several runaway ramps before the crash but instead made a ” bunch of bad decisions .”
Aguilera-Mederos became emotional during his sentencing, and said, “I would have preferred God taken me instead of them.”
The sentencing set off a wave of condemnation, including from Kim Kardashian, and planned protests. A petition on Change.org also has more than 4.7 million signatures advocating for clemency or commutation for Aguilera-Mederos.
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“I know everyone has been posting about Rogel Aguilera-Mederos this week. I took a deep dive in it to figure out what the situation is,” Kardashian wrote in her Instagram Story Tuesday. “For those who don’t know about this case, Rogel Aguilera-Mederos is a 26 year old that was sentenced 110 years in prison for driving a semi-tractor-trailer and crashed into traffic killing four people. He was not drunk or under the influence, his brakes on the semi-tractor-trailer failed.”
Those at the protest on Wednesday in Denver argued Aguilera-Mederos is a “a victim of malicious prosecution.”
“What happened was tragic, and we believe that he’s a victim of malicious prosecution,” said LULAC president, Domingo Garcia, ABC Denver reported. “We had a very productive meeting. I articulated the reasons that we believe Mr. Aguilera-Mederos should receive either a pardon or commuted sentence.”
Garcia believes Aguilera-Mederos’ case should have been a civil case, not a criminal one, despite a jury finding him guilty and the Colorado Motor Carriers Association acknowledging that the brake failures were a human error and not a mechanical one.
COLORADO GOV. JARED POLIS DISCUSSES CLEMENCY FOR TRUCK DRIVER SENTENCED TO 110 YEARS IN PRISON
“To prosecute him and kind of make an example out of him, I don’t think would’ve happened number one if he wasn’t a Latino and number two if he wasn’t an immigrant,” Garcia said. “I think race played a role in this.”
The district attorney, as of Wednesday, moved to reconsider the sentence, while Democratic Gov. Jared Polis is looking at an application for clemency from Aguilera-Mederos’ legal team.
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“Once we reach a decision, we will make an announcement,” a Polis spokesperson told Fox News earlier this week.
