The laws give tremendous power to district attorneys, Garnett said. There were concerns that sentences for the same crimes varied dramatically depending on the judge and perhaps on the defendant, Brauchler said. Mandatory consecutive sentencesĬolorado’s mandatory minimums largely were established in the 1990s as a tough-on-crime response to rising crime rates and a perception among conservative politicians that the state’s judges were handing out light sentences, said Stan Garnett, former Boulder County district attorney.
“I have little sympathy for someone who turns down a reasonable plea bargain offer, and then goes to trial and bemoans the fact that the worst thing that could happen to them happened,” he said. George Brauchler, former district attorney for the 18th Judicial District, disagreed. “It’s out of line for the prosecutor to blame the defendant for exercising his constitutional rights,” Silverstein said. Silverstein said King’s statement suggests the district attorney’s office overcharged the case to try to pressure Aguilera-Mederos into pleading guilty rather than taking the case to trial.
Aguilera-Mederos wasn’t interested in pursuing those negotiations,” she said.Īguilera-Mederos’ attorney, James Colgan, would not discuss what sort of plea bargain was considered, except to say that the discussions “were not fruitful.” “My administration contemplated a significantly different outcome in this case, but Mr. Aguilera-Mederos refused to accept any plea offer “other than a traffic ticket,” King said, and the convictions recognize the harm caused to victims of the crash. Aguilera-Mederos’ decisions that day were extraordinary enough to support pursuing first-degree assault charges,” she said.
King refused to talk to The Denver Post about the case, which was initially charged under her predecessor, Pete Weir, and instead sent statements through a spokesman this week. Prosecutors decide on the charges to file, and they decide what plea bargains to offer.” They have the power to decide who goes to prison and for how long. But I think calls for change also need to be directed at the seldom-criticized but largely unchecked power of prosecutors. “It cries out for the reform of sentencing laws. “This is a grossly excessive sentence,” said Mark Silverstein, legal director for the ACLU of Colorado. One family member of a man who died in the fiery 28-car pileup in Lakewood said he did not want a life sentence for the truck driver.Īnd the day after the sentencing, First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King - who pursued the convictions that led to the 110-year sentence - said in a statement she would “welcome” a reconsideration of the prison term.Īguilera-Mederos’ sentence stretched to more than a century because under Colorado law, first-degree assault and attempted first-degree assault are so-called “crimes of violence” in which prison sentences must run consecutively, and not concurrently, when they spring from the same incident. The judge said during Monday’s sentencing hearing that he had no discretion to set a lesser prison term, though he would have liked to. Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, 26, was sentenced to a prison term twice as long as some Colorado murderers after his convictions triggered provisions in state law that forced District Court Judge Bruce Jones to lay down a minimum 110-year sentence.
The 110-year prison sentence meted out this week to the truck driver who killed four people when he lost his brakes on Interstate 70 put a renewed spotlight on Colorado’s mandatory-minimum sentencing laws and on district attorneys’ ability to use such laws to ensure convictions lead to prison time. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu