Denver Man Who Needed a Drink, Now Likely to Spend the Rest of His Life in Prison
Last November, Lawrence Trujillo needed a drink, so he a friend stopped a downtown bar and had a few. Unfortunately he did not get a cab. About six blocks from my home, he ran over a family, killing two children and their mother. Trujillo then drove home. When police arrived four hours later, he had a BAC of 0.17. The father escaped serious injury.
Trujillo was charged with 13 counts, including vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, leaving the scene of a fatal accident, and child abuse.
In a surprise, Trujillo pled guilty to all counts. According to the Denver Post, his attorney, Rob Bernhardt, said Trujillo had wanted to plead guilty since the day after the accident, but Bernhardt wanted to review the prosecutor’s evidence first. Prosecutors had offered him a deal to 40 to 60 years in prison, but Trujillo decided to skip the deal and plead straight up.
Trujillo faces 16 to 176 years in prison. KTVD reported that Denver District Court Judge Morris Hoffman told Trujillo his practice is to impose consecutive sentences.
The family father, Frank Bingham, said that while Trujillo’s plea brought some degree of closure, “if Mr. Trujillo ever comes out of prison, he should be quite an old man when it happens.”