JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — The widow of a Colorado man killed by an illegal immigrant truck driver is outraged after learning the driver will likely serve only a year in prison following charges of minor traffic violations.
“I’m mad that I’m not going to get justice for my husband,” Deann Miller told 9 News. “Mad because the most this man can get is a year for murdering my husband because the DA refused to charge him with more.” She added, “I lost the man I’ve been with since I was 17.”
Her husband, Scott Miller, 64, was killed in June when a semi-truck driven by 47-year-old Ignacio Cruz-Mendoza lost control, scattering a load of steel and iron rods across Highway 285. The metal fell onto Miller’s pickup truck, crushing him to death on the scene. Four other vehicles were also impacted, and one driver sustained serious injuries.
Cruz-Mendoza, who is in the U.S. illegally, was charged with only minor traffic misdemeanors by the Jefferson County District Attorney: careless driving resulting in a death, and careless driving resulting in injury. After pleading guilty in July, he faces up to a year in prison and fines at his sentencing on Friday.
Miller expressed her disbelief at the light charges, particularly given Cruz-Mendoza’s illegal status. “He should not have been behind the wheel of that truck, and he knew that, and he chose to do this,” she said. According to the Denver Post, Cruz-Mendoza has been removed from the United States or left voluntarily at least 16 times since 2002. Additionally, he did not hold a valid operator’s license at the time of the crash.
“It makes me feel like they didn’t do their job. They’re not doing their job,” Miller said. “Who else is going to get these rogue truck drivers and these rogue trucking companies off the road if not the people we put in charge to make us safe?” She further asked, “How many more people have to die on Colorado roads, on any road, before they start doing their job?”
