A truck driver was sentenced to 110 years in prison after crashing his 18-wheeler into dozens of vehicles on a Colorado highway, killing four people. He insisted he is “not a murderer.”
During the trial, jurors heard that on April 29th Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, a 26-year-old Cuban immigrant, swerved on I-70 in Lakewood hitting other cars off the road.
According to a Fox 31 report, he then slammed his truck into more than two dozen cars and four other semi-trailers that were already stopped on the highway after an earlier crash.
News outlets reported that the crash caused a massive fireball that incinerated some of the vehicles, killing four people and injuring six others.
In October, Aguilera-Mederos was convicted on 42 counts, including vehicular death and first-degree assault, after claiming his brakes had failed before the accident. He was also found guilty of careless driving, reckless driving, and vehicular assault on several counts.
On Monday, Aguilera-Mederos sobbed as he addressed Judge Bruce Jones and grieving relatives of the men he killed before being sentenced.
“I’m begging for forgiveness from everyone,” he said in Jefferson County court, according to footage from KDVR.
“It is hard to live with this … A part of me will be missing forever as well,” he continued.
“This was a terrible accident, I know. I take the responsibility, but it wasn’t intentional.”
“I am not a criminal. I am not a murderer … it is not me. I have never thought about hurting anybody in my entire life, and my Jesus Christ, he know that,” he told the court.
“The accident — it wasn’t intentional,” he insisted.
Aguilera-Mederos told the courts that he was “working for the American dream.”
“I was not out robbing a bank or a store. I was not out shooting up crowds or a school. I was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol … I was working for a better future for my family,” he said.
The judge agreed that Aguilera-Mederos had no intention of harming anyone, but blamed the harsh sentence of 110 years in jail, to be served consecutively, on sentencing guidelines.
“If I had the discretion, it would not be my sentence,” the judge said, according to CBS 4.
Still, he said Aguilera-Mederos “made a series of terrible decisions, reckless decisions.”
Doyle Harrison, 61, William Bailey, 67, Miguel Angel Lamas Arrellano, 24, and Stanley Politano, 69 were the four men who died in the tragic accident.
Dang that’s a bit harsh