Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) is being called out after reducing the prison sentence of a Cuban national who was convicted of killing four Americans in a deadly 2019 crash.
Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos was arrested after he caused a 28-vehicle crash in Lakewood, Colorado, that took the lives of 24-year-old Miguel Angel Lamas Arellano, 67-year-old William Bailey, 61-year-old Doyle Harrison, and 69-year-old Stanley Politano, Breitbart News reported.
Aguilera-Mederos is a green card-holder from Cuba who had been living in Texas.
In October 2021, Aguilera-Mederos was convicted by a jury on 27 counts including four counts of vehicular homicide, six counts of first-degree assault, 10 counts of attempt to commit assault in the first degree, four counts of careless driving causing death, two counts of vehicular assault, and one count of reckless driving.
As a result, Aguilera-Mederos was sentenced to 110 years in prison. The families of the victims have said they wanted a sentence of around 20 to 30 years. Facing pressure from jailbreak activists, including reality television star Kim Kardashian West, Polis reduced Aguilera-Mederos’s sentence to just 10 years in prison.
Thank you @GovofCO 🙏🏼👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/v0HoGuafnP
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) December 30, 2021
Now, Bailey’s brother, Duane Bailey, is blasting Polis for the decision.
“This was not an accident, it was a series [of] decisions on the part of the driver that caused [four] deaths,” Bailey told CBS4 Denver. “The jury heard the evidence and convicted him.”
“The governor put himself above the law by not letting the court proceedings finish out. There was a hearing scheduled on January 13th to reconsider his sentence. The governor should have let that hearing take place,” Bailey said:
On top of that [Polis] made the announcement when he knew people would be focused on the tragic fires. So, in a way he also took advantage of them to provide coverage so he could announce this without much news coverage. You all should be upset about that. [Emphasis added]
You also have to realize [Aguilera-Mederos] will not spend the entire 10 years the governor put his sentence at. He could get out in as little as five years. Would your brother’s life be adequately compensated if he spent 1 1/4 years per death in prison? [Emphasis added]
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter here.
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