Frank Bingham said guilty pleas from the man who killed his family have given him “closure.” But Lawrence Trujillo will have to look elsewhere to find sympathy.
Trujillo, 36, in an unusual move, pleaded guilty Monday afternoon to all 13 charges against him without any concessions from prosecutors.
Bingham said after the hearing that he hopes the judge will not reduce Trujillo’s sentence just because he took responsibility for the drunken-driving deaths on Nov. 10.
“I think Mr. Trujillo’s willingness to admit his guilt provides some degree of closure for myself,” he said after Monday’s hearing. But “if he ever comes out of prison, he should be quite an old man.”
That will likely be the case. Trujillo, who pleaded guilty to several charges of vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, leaving the scene of a fatal accident and child abuse resulting in death in the downtown hit-and-run crash that killed Bingham’s wife and two children, faces between 16 and 174 years in prison.
Denver District Judge Morris Hoffman told Trujillo that he doesn’t usually issue concurrent sentences to cut down on a defendant’s prison time. And if Trujillo received consecutive sentences, the minimum sentence he would get would likely be at least 32 years.
Trujillo quietly agreed to the charges and circumstances of the crime as Chief Deputy District Attorney Lamar Sims read them to the court.
Trujillo admitted that he drank the afternoon and evening of Nov. 10 and then at high speed ran red lights honking the horn of his truck. He then agreed that he plowed into Frank; Rebecca, 39; Macie, 4; and Garrison, 2, injuring Frank and killing the rest of his family.
“By pleading guilty, you admit each and every one of these facts,” Hoffman said, adding that he gives up his right to a trial and any appeal.
“I do,” Trujillo, wearing gray jail scrubs and standing hunched, replied.
Rob Bernhardt, Trujillo’s attorney, said Trujillo wanted to avoid a trial that could force Bingham to testify about what he saw the night his family was killed at 15th and Arapahoe streets.
“Lawrence Trujillo is a good person. … He does not want to relive that night,” Bernhardt said after the hearing. “This is everyone’s worst nightmare when it comes to drinking and driving.”
He said Trujillo had wanted to plead guilty since the day after the accident, but Bernhardt wanted to review all of the prosecution evidence before Trujillo did anything. The lawyer had previously argued that police coerced a confession from Trujillo, and tried to get that excluded from court.
Hoffman said Trujillo’s decision to take full responsibility was unusual.
“You’re pleading straight up,” he said, repeatedly asking Trujillo whether he was forced to plead or was promised anything for his guilty pleas and whether he was impaired by alcohol and drugs.
Trujillo said he is on anti-anxiety medication but that he is taking responsibility for the deaths of his own accord.
“That’s what I wish to do today,” he told Hoffman.
“I have to say it’s a substantial risk,” Hoffman said of pleading guilty without knowing the exact sentencing maximums.
Hoffman scheduled Trujillo’s sentencing for Oct. 2, but prosecutors said they have not yet come up with a recommendation for how long Trujillo should spend in prison.
Bernhardt said prosecutors offered a plea deal of between 40 and 60 years, but Trujillo decided to take responsibility for the crimes and hopes the judge will take that into consideration.
Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the Denver district attorney’s office, declined to comment on any offers.
Kimbrough said the only person she can remember pleading guilty without a deal in a major case is serial rapist Brent J. Brents.
Prosecutors had been given a heads up that they might not have to go to trial Aug. 6 on this case but did not know for sure that Trujillo would plead until Monday.
Bingham said that with the case behind him, he’s trying to get on with his life.
“Not great,” he said when asked how he is doing. “I keep moving forward one day at a time.”
Staff writer Arthur Kane can be reached at 303-954-1244 or akane@denverpost.com.
