A truck driver kills four people due to negligence. Polis commutes his sentence to potentially less than two years per death.
In a trial — or, more accurately, a verdict — that received international attention, Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, who killed four people on April 25, 2019, was sentenced to 110 years for his crimes. Aguilera-Mederos, a truck driver, did not kill these people in cold blood. Still, Miguel Angel Lamas Arellano, 24; William Bailey, 67; Doyle Harrison, 61; and Stanley Politano, 69, lost their lives due to Aguilera-Mederos’ negligence. He lost control of his vehicle and then ultimately his brakes failed, but before that he did not take the standard precautions.
We are in agreement with the vast majority of Coloradans that the sentence was excessive, bound to guidelines that did not reflect the particulars and nuance of this case. We agree that the prosecutor fashioned the charges to elicit this maximum, dare we say, inhumane, sentence. We empathize with Judge Bruce Jones, whose hands were tied by the criminal justice system and who could not ameliorate the sentence. We understand the Governor Polis’ impulse to use his executive privilege to weigh in on the case.
All that said, the Governor abused his power and the justice system. A re-sentencing hearing for Aguilera-Mederos was scheduled for January 13, 2022, at which testimony could be presented on behalf of both the victims and defendant. It would have been far better for the integrity of our judicial system — for due process — had the governor awaited this hearing. Afterwards, he could have acted, if necessary.
Extra-judicial action on a non-pressing matter — the hearing was only three weeks away when the Governor commuted the sentence — was unnecessary, unwise, setting a negative precedent. In an era when the integrity of the justice system is under indiscriminate attack, the Governor added to the mistrust by pushing the justice system aside.
We were not in the jury box. We did not hear the hours of evidence that led the jury to convict Aguilera-Mederos on 27 of 41 charges. We did not hear the hours of evidence that convinced a jury that Aguilera-Mederos was guilty on four counts of vehicular homicide.
The Governor didn’t hear the evidence, either. Yet he reduced a sentence of 110 years to an arbitrary 10 years. Presumably, the governor was briefed on the case, but that’s not the same as hearing evidence in a courtroom setting. We believe in the American jury system. We trust that the jury of Aguilera-Mederos’ peers listened and deliberated intently, reaching a verdict based on evidence and testimony presented.
What they found, according to news reports, is that this was no mere accident. Aguilera-Mederos made a series of bad decisions that led to the death of four innocent people. There was no malice on his part, true. But poor decision-making cost four people their lives. That is indisputable. With Polis’ new 10-year sentence, Aguilera-Mederos will be eligible for parole in six years.
That is not even a two-year sentence per fatality!
That is unconscionable.
And let’s not forget, there were also 10 other victims seriously injured. If a 110-year sentence did not fit the crimes, neither does a 10-year sentence. Polis’ overcorrection has made a farce of the enormous price in human life caused by Aguilera-Mederos’ professional mistakes.
An aspect of this case that has troubled us since the trial opened is the culpability of Aguilera-Mederos’ employers. This has been eclipsed by all the attention focused on the excessive verdict and now the excessive reduction. Yes, it was Aguilera-Mederos who was driving the vehicle that crashed into traffic. Ultimate responsibility lies with him. But what of the company that hired Aguilera-Mederos? What of the company that obviously overlooked Aguilera-Mederos’ grossly deficient skills and judgment?
As America faces a truck driver shortage, Aguilera-Mederos’ case is a siren, a stern warning against fast-track training to get drivers on the road. We have all been affected by the supply chain shortage, whether in our businesses or personal lives, but these four fatalities are a tragic reminder of what happens when someone incompetent takes the wheel — and when an employer allows him to take the wheel — of potentially lethal machinery.
Anecdotally, we know traffic accidents and fatalities are increasing in the metro area. We have all seen the horrifying wrecks and emergency vehicles. We have all witnessed the deterioration in driving skill and decorum. The speeding, cutting off of cars, tailing of cars, lack of indication for lane change, sudden turns, cars crossing three lanes on a dime. Some of us might even be guilty of such behavior ourselves.
It is not anecdote alone. As of early November, 2021, there were 73 traffic deaths in Denver last year, a sharp rise. Despite less traffic in 2020 due to the pandemic, there was an increase in interstate fatalities that year.
By making light of Aguilera-Mederos’ actions, the wrong message that Polis sent is that vehicular homicide is a mere “accident.”
That killing someone with a car is no big deal if there was no intent to do harm.
That’s the opposite message that drivers in this state need to hear. Too many lives depend on it.
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