A truck driver who pleaded guilty to causing a crash that killed a 64-year-old man in June was handed the maximum possible sentence of one year in prison by a Jefferson County judge on Friday.
Ignacio Cruz Mendoza, 47, pleaded guilty July 31 to one count of careless driving causing death and three counts of careless driving causing injury.
During the sentencing hearing, Judge Kristan Wheeler said her preference would be to sentence Mendoza individually for the injuries suffered by each victim of the deadly June 11 crash, extending his sentence, but that was not what the law allowed her.
“I respect the people’s decisions on costs,” Wheeler said. “I also understand why the victims feel this was a reckless disregard for human life, and I think it was.”
Mendoza was arrested June 11 on vehicular homicide and vehicular assault charges after police said he lost control of his tractor-trailer southbound on US 285 near Aspen Park. The trailer rolled during the crash, sending heavy steel pipes spilling over the roadway and closing the highway overnight.
During the sentencing hearing, the prosecutor said that the steel pipes in Mendoza’s truck were not properly secured, that he was not properly licensed to drive the vehicle, that the vehicle did not meet safety standards and that witnesses reported that he did not honk or warn others. he was in trouble behind the wheel.
The crash killed 64-year-old Scott Miller and injured other drivers. One driver who suffered a concussion from the crash, Nancy Flynn, spoke in court Friday.
Flynn, along with Miller’s family and friends, urged Wheeler to give Mendoza the maximum punishment possible for his actions.
“My greatest fear is that after serving his sentence, he will return to our roads as if nothing happened and this incident never happened,” Flynn told the court.
Several of Miller’s loved ones expressed anger and frustration over the maximum one-year prison sentence, feeling it was not an adequate punishment for the crime. The prosecutor said the misdemeanor charge that led to the one-year prison sentence was a result of him having to file charges before all the facts of the case were known.
During the emotional sentencing hearing, Miller’s daughter, Michelle Miller-Tusa, said she wanted the court to know which man was her father before he died in the crash.
Miller-Tusa described her father as a fun, adventurous man who gave his family a life full of laughter and whimsy. He built his daughter a tree house where she and her friends grew up playing, dressed up as Santa for the holidays and turned his backyard into an RC car track for his friends and grandchildren to enjoy.
“He leaves behind so many loved ones,” Miller-Tusa said. “His reach was way deep. The kind that only a truly lovely person in this world could affect.”
Mendoza had an active record in the Commercial Driver’s License Information System, but he did not have a valid U.S. or commercial driver’s license at the time of the crash, officials said.
Officials said Mendoza also did not have a valid driver’s license from Mexico, where Mendoza was from. Mendoza is a Mexican citizen living illegally in the United States who has been voluntarily removed or left from the country 16 times since 2002, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.
Mendoza’s criminal history includes a previous drunken driving conviction in 2018, the prosecutor said Friday.
Mendoza drove for Monique Trucking, an interstate shipping company based in Indio, California. According to company safety data, Monique Trucking is a general freight company.
Wheeler said the trucking company should not have driven Mendoza without proper training and licensing.
Miller’s wife of 46 years, Deann Miller, spoke angrily in court Friday about the length of Mendoza’s sentence.
“We, his family, believe that justice has not been served for our husband, father and grandfather,” Miller said. “We are extremely angry, beyond sad and tired of being told that a criminal offense is the best thing we can do.”
Miller said her husband was her best friend.
“The day Cruz Mendoza killed my husband, he killed me too,” Miller said.
Mendoza addressed the court during the hearing with the help of a translator.
“I want to express my deepest condolences,” Mendoza said. “I am terribly sorry for this terrible accident, and I hope that God will be next to you during this terrible moment.”
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