Colorado Governor’s Press Office, Jared Polisannounced Thursday that, using his constitutional power, he reduced the sentence of Cuban truck driver Rogel Aguilera Mederos to 10 years in prison, instead of the 110 years he had initially received.
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This was anticipated by the Telemundo Denver portal and explained that the governor commuted Aguilera-Mederos’ sentence to 10 years in prison. The 26-year-old had been sentenced to 110 years in prisonsentence that unleashed a wave of protests and indignation in the United States.
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The case of the Cuban driver had grabbed headlines in the US after the incident on April 25, 2019 when Aguilera Mederos, 24 at the time, was involved in an accident when getting off the Rocky Mountains on I-70 west of Denver because his truck lost its brakes.
The scale of the sentence generated intense debate in the US. Celebrities such as Kim Kardashian They demanded a measure of grace from Governor Polis, who finally granted it this Thursday.
In that accident, four people were killed and dozens of other motorists were injured. Last October, a jury found Aguilera Mederos guilty of most of the charges against her, including using her truck as a weapon to cause death and injury.
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For this reason, on December 13, the judge in charge of the case had sentenced the Cuban truck driver to 110 years in prison, by imposing the maximum sentence on Aguilera Mederos for each of his charges and ordering that the sentences should be served successively, and not simultaneously.
The governor granted three commutations and fifteen individual pardons, including Aguilera. The Democratic politician used his power to change that sentence after the trucker requested clemency.
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Prosecutors presented evidence throughout the trial to show that the accident was not an accident, but rather the result of a series of bad decisions.
The judge had scheduled a new court hearing for January 13 to reconsider the sentence reduction, but it would be canceled due to the new decision.
“I believe you deserve clemency for a number of reasons. You were sentenced to 110 years in prison, actually more than a life sentence, for a tragic but unintentional act,” the statement read. letter from Polis to Aguilera in which he grants him the measure of grace.
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“Although you are not exempt from guilt, your sentence is disproportionate compared to that of many other prisoners in our criminal justice system who commit violent, intentional, premeditated crimes,” says another of the sections of the letter that the prisoner wrote. Colorado Governor to the sentenced
Until now, neither the family of Aguilera Mederos nor the leaders of the many organizations that support him have spoken publicly.
ELTIEMPO.COM