The driver was sentenced to 110 years in prison after a brake failure on his vehicle caused a crash that killed four people
Kim Kardashian has joined millions of others in calling for clemency for a 26-year-old truck driver sentenced to 110 years in prison earlier this month.
Rogel Aguilera-Mederos was driving his vehicle on April 25 2019 along along Interstate 70 in Lakewood, Colorado, when he crashed into two dozen vehicles that were struck in rush-hour traffic.
The impact caused an explosion, killing four people.
On October 15, a jury found him guilty and on December 13 he was sentenced to 110 years by Judge A. Bruce Jones – the minimum allowed by Colorado’s sentencing laws.
He was found guilty on 27 criminal charges. These were four counts of vehicular homicide, two counts of vehicular assault, six counts of assault in the first-degree with extreme indifference, 10 counts of criminal attempt to commit assault in the first degree, one count of reckless driving and four counts of careless driving causing death
His sentence has sparked shock and outrage across the US.
Now, Kim Kardashian has joined the millions of voices calling for Aguilera-Mederos to be granted clemency, posting on her Instagram story that she had heard about the case and “took a deep dive in it to figure out what the situation is.”
She continued: “He was not drunk or under the influence; his brakes on the tractor-trailer failed.
“Another shocking and unfair part of this case is that the judge didn’t want to sentence him to such a lengthy sentence.
“However, because of the mandatory minimums in Colorado, his hands were tied.
“Mandatory minimums take away judicial discretion and need to end.”
(Credit: kimkardashian/Instagram)
(Credit: kimkardashian/Instagram)Kardashian goes on to condemn the celebrations of the prosecutors, before adding that the governor, Jared Polis, “is a really good person and I know he will do the right thing.”
(Credit: kimkardashian/Instagram)It comes as a petition asking for Aguilera-Mederos to be granted clemency has hit more than 4.6 million signatures at the time of writing.
The petition says that the driver complied with everything he was asked to do by the authorities and the courts, showing utter regret for the accident.
“Rogel is not a criminal, the company he was working for knew the federal laws that go into truck driving but they failed to follow those laws,” it adds.
Related links:
- Petition for clemency for truck driver with 110-year jail sentence reaches 4.5m signatures
- Truckers ‘boycott Colorado’ after 110 year sentence for driver who caused fatal accident
- Clemency petition for truck driver who killed four after brakes failed gets 2.5m signatures
