Trucker’s sentence in fatal crash spotlights sentencing laws

By SHELLY BRADBURY
The Denver Post

DENVER (AP) — The 110-year prison sentence given the truck driver who killed four people when he lost his brakes on Interstate 70 renewed the spotlight on Colorado’s mandatory-minimum sentencing laws. It’s also placed focus on prosecutors’ ability to use such laws to ensure convictions lead to prison time. Rogel Aguilera-Mederos received a prison term twice as long as some Colorado murderers. That’s because his convictions triggered provisions in state law that forced the prosecutor to lay down a minimum 110-year sentence. The judge said he didn’t have discretion to set a lesser prison term, though he would have liked to. A family member of a man who died in the fiery 28-car pileup in Lakewood said he didn’t want a life sentence for the truck driver.