Aguilera-Mederos thanked all the support received and said he felt hopeful.
Photo: BROWARD SHERIFF OFFICE AND DENVER POLICE / Courtesy
The judge who led the case against Cuban truck driver Roger Lázaro Aguilera-Mederos in Colorado thundered at state governor Jared Polis after he reduced his prison term from 110 years to 10.
Judge Bruce Jones stated in a written order released by The Denver Post on Wednesday that learned of the commutation from newspaper reports.
The expectation and what usually happens in cases like this is that if the request for sentence reduction is in the hands of a judge, the governor in question wait for a judicial decision before intervening.
However, Polis’ decision was given on December 30, at least two weeks before the hearing scheduled by the judge to evaluate a possible reduction of sentence.
Basically, the judge questioned that the governor made the decision before the judiciary did the same and that it did not notify him either.
“The Court respects the governor’s authority to do this,” Jones’s document reads.
“However, based on the time in which the decision was made, apparently, the respect is not mutual,” said the lawyer.
Last October, Aguilera-Mederos was Found guilty of 27 counts in the accident on Interstate 70, reported in April 2019, which left four dead and several injured. On December 13, the Hispanic was sentenced to 110 years in prison based on applicable sentencing laws in the state.
Campaign for the release of Aguilera-Mederos surpasses 5 million signatures on Change.org
However, the conviction was cataloged by dozens of people as unfair and disproportionate. The call for the release of the convict on the Change.org platform surpassed 5 million signatures, thus becoming the third largest on the platform this year.
The convict’s defense alleged that it was an accident and that his client failed the brakes of the truck in which he was transporting wood.
After the uproar in networks, which was joined by personalities such as the model Kim Kardashian, the district attorney Alexis King requested a hearing of resentment. That hearing is supposed to take place on January 13. But, following the governor’s decision, the judge canceled it as part of Tuesday’s order.
Duane Bailey, whose brother William Bailey died in the accident, said relatives of the victims met with Polis and asked him not to intervene.
“We thought the governor would stay out of the discussion,” Bailey said. “We think the governor was very impatient. He only had to wait two weeks. He should have let the process unfold, ”said the relative.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.