WELD COUNTY, Colo. — A jury has found a truck driver who slammed into a car on Interstate 25 and killed five people guilty on all counts on Wednesday.
Sentencing is set for June 21.
Jesus Puebla was charged with 10 counts, including five counts of vehicular homicide and one count of vehicular assault. Those charges are related to the five people killed and the one person injured in the crash on June 13, 2022.
"It would be a total injustice to blame Mr. Puebla for this, simply because you want to hold somebody - anybody - accountable," his attorney James Colgan said during closing arguments.
"Dangerous speeds - deadly consequences - and that is due to distraction," prosecutor Yvette Guthrie said.
Puebla's trial started March 19. Both sides made their final arguments to the jury Wednesday morning in Weld County District Court. Jurors were dismissed to begin deliberations just after noon and the verdict was read just before 5:30 p.m.
Puebla was driving a truck carrying mail for the United States Postal Service on northbound Interstate 25 in Weld County when he failed to slow down for stopped traffic and slammed into the back of a car with a family inside.
Aaron Godines and Hailie Everts were killed, along with their baby daughter Tessleigh. Aaron's parents Christina and Emiliano were also in the car and died. Another driver survived but suffered multiple broken ribs and vertebrae.
Puebla’s attorney argued Caminantes Trucking, the company that owned the truck, was at fault. A Colorado State Patrol investigation and the truck driver’s attorneys both concluded the truck did not have working brakes. Even if they had been working, prosecutors contend that Puebla was driving recklessly miles before the crash.
"His driving was horrific - and people saw it," Guthrie said.
Then she argued that Puebla was distracted and didn't react to the stopped traffic in front of him until it was too late.
"He did not brake until he hit this family," Guthrie said. "We know when he braked because there are skid marks. It's that simple."
She noted that, based on the investigation, he was traveling about 76 miles per hour when he hit the vehicle, and reminded jurors about the 911 caller who said Puebla "went through those vehicles like butter. He didn't even try to stop."
Prosecutors also pointed out that Puebla shouldn't have been behind the wheel at all, because his commercial driver's license had expired. They said his truck was out of spec - and if Puebla had done an inspection as he claimed, he would have known the vehicle was unsafe to drive.
Colgan countered by saying that Puebla "was in just as much danger as anybody going down the road" due to the issues with the vehicle, which he described as a "Frankenstein truck." He said those who had worked on it had put it back together in a way that made it extremely dangerous.
"In this real life, the Dr. Frankenstein is whoever plumbed that truck and made it so dangerous," Colgan said. "That Dr. Frankenstein is the mechanic or the owner of Caminantes Trucking. Is he ever going to be held accountable? Not based on what we've seen in this courtroom."
Federal court records show that Caminantes Trucking did not have insurance on the vehicle and attempted to purchase coverage less than an hour after the crash.
"Once you get in the vehicle, you make decisions, and the decisions you make, you are liable for them," Guthrie said. "Caminantes Trucking was not in that vehicle. He was. He made those decisions. He passed it on his inspection. He drove it. He drove it once before."
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