4.5 Million People Sign Petition To Reduce 110-Year Sentence For Trucker

Millions of people are fighting and have signed online petitions to help save the life and lesson the sentence of 26-year-old truck driver Rogel Aguilera-Mederos. 

Rogel is a ruck driver who was sentenced to a minimum of 110 years in prison after killing four people in a fiery crash on a Colorado highway.

Mederos was convicted for causing a deadly pileup after losing control of his semitrailer on Interstate 70 near Denver on April 25, 2019.

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At the time of the accident, he was 23. 

As per The Denver Post, District Court Judge Bruce Jones gave the sentence after finding it was the mandatory minimum sentence set forth under the state law.

Said Jones:

"I will state that if I had the discretion, it would not be my sentence."

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However, public is defending Rogel and believe the crash was unintentional started a Change.org petition asking Colorado Governor Jared Polis to grant Aguilera-Mederos clemency or commutation as time served.

Truckers also boycotted Colorado in protest

According to Fox 13, the jury convicted Rogel of "four counts of vehicular homicide, six counts of first-degree assault, 10 counts of attempted first-degree assault, four counts of careless driving causing death, two counts of vehicular assault and one count of reckless driving."

According to the investigators, Rogel was hauling lumber on a stretch of the interstate with a commercial vehicle speed limit of 45 mph.

But he was careening down at 85 mph due to the steep descent from the Rocky Mountain foothills, and then he testified that the brakes of his semitrailer failed and he crashed into vehicles that had apparently slowed for a different wreck near the Denver suburb of Lakewood.

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His semitrailer crashed and it caused a 28 vehicle pileup that lead to a giant fireball erupting from a ruptured gas tank that consumed several vehicles and melted parts of the highway.

During the court trial, the prosecutors argued that Rogel could have used one of several runaway ramps designed to prevent collisions in the event a truck driver lost control of their vehicle.

Police however said that Rogel had passed a runaway ramp before reaching the crash site.

The pileup accident killed Miguel Angel Lamas Arellano, 24; William Bailey, 67; Doyle Harrison, 61; and Stanley Politano, 69.

Watch the CBS Denver news report, here

The petition's author, Heather Gilbee, shared that Rogel always had a clean driving record with no criminal history. She pointed that it was the trucking company's reason for the tragic accident. 

"He had complied with every single request by the Jefferson County courts, and investigators on the case," wrote Gilbee.

"He's passed all of the drug and alcohol tests that were given including a chemical test."

"This accident was not intentional, nor was it a criminal act on the driver's part. No one but the trucking company he is/was employed by should be held accountable for this accident."

Gilbee pointed that she is not undermining the magnitude of the tragedy and acknowledges the lives lost, but she wanted to "hold the person who needs to be held responsible, responsible."

"The trucking company has had several inspections since 2017, with several mechanical violations," she continued.

"There are many things Rogel could have done to avoid the courts, but he took responsibility showed up, and severely apologized to the victims' families."

"Some of the families even offered Forgiveness. 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."

A spokesperson for Change.org shares that the campaign has proven to be the fastest-growing petition in all of 2021, with around 45,000 signatures within an hour of its posting on Wednesday.

Attorney Bryan Kuhn told FOX 31 Denver Rogel's story resonated with millions of people because they believed the crash was not a criminal act.

"There doesn’t seem to be an intentionality of murder, and he’s getting a sentence that would rival a mass murderer," Kuhn said.

"I think that is not sitting well, I think a lot of people think there maybe should be a long jail sentence, but this may be just a little too much for some folks."

After hearing his sentence, Rogel wept bitterly as he apologized to the families and the victims and sought their forgiveness.

"I am not a criminal," he said.

"I am not a murderer. I am not a killer. When I look at my charges, we are talking about a murderer, which is not me. I have never thought about hurting anybody in my entire life."