DENVER — More than 4.5 million people have signed an online petition seeking a truck driver's clemency after he was sentenced to 110 years in jail for a horrific 2019 crash on Colorado's I-70, which killed four people.
According to Fox News, the Change.org petition is the website's fastest growing this year.
"There doesn’t seem to be an intentionality of murder, and he’s getting a sentence that would rival a mass murder," Bryan Kuhn, an attorney, told the website. "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."
Rogel Aguilera-Medros, 26, was found guilty earlier this month of vehicular homicide and other offenses. He said that on April 25, 2019, he tried to slam on the brakes to stop his semitrailer hauling lumber, but they failed.
Prosecutors focused on his decision not to use any runaway truck ramps on Interstate 70 west of Denver while speeding at around 85 mph.
The chain reaction crash caused gas tanks to explode, igniting flames that burned multiple vehicles and melted sections of the highway. Miguel Angel Lamas Arellano, 24, William Bailey, 67, Doyle Harrison, 61, and Stanley Politano, 69, were among those killed.
He cried as he addressed the court at his sentence earlier this month, pleading with the victims' families to forgive him.
"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."
According to The Denver Post, District Court Judge Bruce Jones imposed the sentence after determining that it was the state's mandated minimum term.
