As governor commutes trucker driver’s sentence, prosecutors vow to release new information from case

(DENVER) — Prosecutors who charged Rogel Aguilera-Mederos following a deadly crash vowed to release previously undisclosed information from the case to the public after Colorado Gov. Jared Polis granted the truck driver clemency on Thursday, commuting his 110-year sentence to 10 years.

“We look forward to sharing more information with our community that we were ethically prohibited from releasing while the case was pending,” Jefferson County District Attorney Alexis King, the prosecutor in the case, said in a statement on Thursday.

It is unclear when the DA will release the new information or what it would include. ABC News has reached out to King’s office, but a request for comment was not immediately returned.

Mederos was sentenced on Dec. 13 to 110 years in prison for a 2019 fatal crash on Interstate 70, outside Denver, that killed four people and injured several others — a sentence the judge said he wouldn’t have chosen if he had the discretion.

Aguilera-Mederos’ attorneys, Leonard Martinez and James Colgan said they were “surprised” by how fast Polis acted, adding that it is “unusual” for a governor to act on clemency before the appellate process takes place.

But now that Polis has acted, Colgan said they believe that the case is no longer in the jurisdiction of the courts or the DA’s office and King’s promise to release new information is a case of “sour grapes” and based on “political motivations.”

“It wouldn’t matter what she disclosed now,” Colgan told ABC News.

“I’m not aware of any law that allows [the DA’s office] to have jurisdiction over the case,” he added.

Asked what the new information may be, “I have no idea,” the attorneys both said.

Polis commuted Mederos’ sentence two weeks after his legal team applied for clemency and ahead of a scheduled hearing next month requested by King for the court to reconsider the sentence.

“After learning about the highly atypical and unjust sentence in your case, I am commuting your sentence to 10 years and granting you parole eligibility on December 30, 2026,” Polis wrote in a statement on Thursday.

Martinez said he was on the phone when Polis’ office called Mederos to inform him that his sentence was commuted.

“He was shocked … and he said he was very grateful,” Martinez said.

“Rogel is very grateful for all the support he’s gotten not only locally, but nationally. He’s humbled by it,” Martinez said.

His mother, Oslaida Mederos, who spoke exclusively with “Nightline” earlier this week, is also “grateful” and “celebrating” the decision but would like her son home “even sooner,” Martinez added.

Amid mounting public backlash over the sentence, King filed a motion earlier this month asking the court to reconsider the 110 years and suggested a sentencing range of 20-30 years instead.

King said that the range was determined after conversations with the victims and their families.

“We are disappointed in the Governor’s decision to act prematurely,” King said on Thursday.

“We are meeting with the victims and their loved ones this evening to support them in navigating this unprecedented action and to ensure they are treated with fairness, dignity, and respect during this difficult time,” she added.

Martinez said he believes that the clemency from the governor takes any other legal avenues, including an appeal, off the table.

But because it is so “unusual” that Polis acted before the appellate process took place, the legal team needs to “review” all options, he added.

The court has not officially vacated the hearing to reconsider the original sentence, which is set for Jan. 13, but Mederos’ attorney said they expect the judge to do so next week.

Mederos was charged with 42 counts and found guilty by a Jefferson County jury of 27 counts — the most serious was first-degree assault, a class-three felony.

The number of the charges, mandatory minimum laws and a classification that mandates some sentences be served consecutively resulted in the lengthy sentence.

Mederos testified that his brakes failed – a point not contested by prosecutors, but some points of contention in the case appear to be decisions Mederos allegedly made before the crash took place and once he found out that he was having brake problems.

ABC News’ Jeffrey Cook and Mark Osborne contributed to this report.

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