The conviction of a young truck driver to 110 years in prison for accidentally killing four people is causing controversy in the United States. Millions of Americans, including reality star Kim Kardashian, are mobilizing to demand a review of the sentence.
Judge Bruce Jones, who led the trial of Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, himself said in giving his judgment last week that “if he had had the power” he would not have handed down such a severe sanction. .
But Colorado laws automatically force him to accumulate prison sentences corresponding to the charges of which the driver has been convicted by a jury: 27 in total, some of which in the eyes of local law are “violent crime”.
The drama took place on April 25, 2019, not far from Denver. Rogel Aguilera-Mederos was driving that day on a highway in a semi-trailer loaded with wood when his brakes, he said, failed on a descent.
4 dead
The truck ended its race at over 130 km / h in vehicles which were immobilized by an accident. The pile-up involved a total of 28 vehicles, some of which were set on fire in shock. Four people died and six others were injured.
The prosecution notably accused the driver of negligence and disastrous choices during his mad race. According to the prosecutor’s services, the young man could in particular have put his truck on a distress lane specially designed for emergency stops but chose to stay on the highway, in the middle of traffic.
Petition of 4.5 million signatures
His lawyer, James Colgan, told ABC television that his client “may have been guilty of faulty negligence” but that the punishment was “completely disproportionate”.
Faced with such severity, a petition was launched on the Change.org site to ask the Colorado authorities to pardon the young man or to commute his sentence. As of Wednesday morning, the petition had collected more than 4.5 million signatures.
Reality star Kim Kardashian, who is trained as a lawyer, was even moved by the young man’s fate on Twitter, calling on Colorado Governor Jared Polis “to do the right thing.”
I know everyone has been posting about Rogel Aguilera-Mederos this week. I took a deep dive in it to figure out what the situation is. pic.twitter.com/617xtcGOMK
– Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) December 21, 2021
The governor said he had received a request for clemency and was studying it. For their part, the prosecutor’s services indicated that they had requested a new hearing to review the conviction of Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, a provision according to them provided for by Colorado law “in exceptional cases”.