‘This man is NOT a criminal and this was purely an accident’
The petition for clemency regarding the case of Rogel Aguilera-Mederos has now reached over four and a half million signatures.
For those unaware, Aguilera-Mederos is a 26-year-old truck driver who was slapped with a 110-year prison sentence (as per state law) after he was involved in a truck crash that tragically killed four and injured several back in 2019.
However, it was found that the cause of the crash was a brake failure – one of numerous violations the trucking company that employed him had been aware of – and, as such, Aguilera-Mederos is now begging for forgiveness, with millions calling for a reduction in jail time at the very least.
The petition, which hit over two a half-million signatures this past weekend, has continued to circulate around social media and garner even more support as people learn of his case.
Naturally, many are pointing out that he had no prior criminal record or even any issues on his driving license – and he had been cooperative with the authorities at every stage, testing negative for substances as well as taking responsibility as an “inexperienced truck driver” and apologising to the families of the victims.
https://twitter.com/JosephMorrisYT/status/1471301937152811013?s=20
Many commenters on the Change.org page have written something to this effect: “This was not a criminal act. Charge the company for knowingly using bad equipment not the 23-year-old driver” – the age he was when the 28-car crash happened.
Moreover, many have highlighted what they believe is an obvious racial disparity between Aguilera-Mederos’ treatment compared to white individuals connected to road traffic accidents and other recent high-profile cases such as Kyle Rittenhouse, who was found not guilty after he shot and killed two men and injured a third but claimed “self-defence”.
Ethan Couch;
•White. Drives drunk while underage—kills 4 people
•0 prison on theory he was too rich to know betterRogel Aguilera-Mederos:
•Latino. Brakes fail while driving truck—kills 4 people
•110 years prison on theory he should’ve known betterThere are 2 Americas pic.twitter.com/iSEVw04Jjj
— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) December 19, 2021
Furthermore, truckers from across the United States and the Americas have started to boycott the state of Colorado over the gross injustice they feel is being carried out – the implication that any one of them could fall foul to the same judgement regardless of whether their employers are foremost implicated.
His current charges total 27: four counts of vehicular homicide, six counts of first-degree assault, 10 counts of attempt to commit assault in the first degree (extreme indifference), two counts of vehicular assault (reckless), one count of reckless driving and four counts of careless driving causing death.
District Court Judge A. Bruce Jones said he had “no desire” to give Aguilera-Mederos life in prison and would have reduced the sentence had he the legal discretion but that his hands were tied by stringent state law.
In contrast, little to nothing has been said of the trucking company, Castellano 03 Trucking LLC, who employed him and were aware of the faults on the vehicle yet still allowed for it to be driven.
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