Rogel Aguilera-Mederos faced harsh punishment under the state’s mandatory minimum sentences for insisting on the right to a trial.
Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis ended 2021 using his executive power to provide some mercy, commuting the controversial 110-year prison sentence of a trucker who killed four in a crash and pardoning more than 1,300 Coloradans with marijuana convictions. Rogel Aguilera-Mederos became a national news story in December when a judge sentenced him to 110 years in prison as punishment when the brakes of his truck failed and he killed four people in a highway crash. The brake failure was partly a result of some poor decisions on Aguilera-Mederos’ part. Nevertheless, it certainly wasn’t his intent to kill anybody. The reason he received a sentence similar to what a murderer would get was because he insisted on a right to a trial, and the prosecutor essentially punished him for it by throwing 42 charges at him. He was ultimately convicted of 27 charges and his harsh sentence was a result of all of the mandatory minimums attached.
