GOLDEN — A “careless driver” who ran a red light, causing a crash that killed a young father, was sentenced Friday in Jefferson County Court to six months in jail.
Aaron Merriman died June 2, about two weeks shy of his 38th birthday, at the intersection of Kipling Street and Lakewood Heights Drive in Lakewood.
Merriman, heading to work on a Saturday about 6 a.m., was turning right onto Kipling when his Audi was broadsided by a Ford pickup driven by 44-year-old Nicholas Strange.
Merriman’s relatives, including, his widow, Kristin, and his parents, Jane and Dan, addressed Judge Charles Hoppin on Friday, telling him of their loss.
Kristin Merriman said that on the night before her husband’s death, the couple took their 5-year-old son, Jaden, to a restaurant where father and child played with the “claw” machine, fishing for prizes from the bottom of a glass case using a claw on a wire.
Aaron Merriman and Jaden grabbed a spiky, rubber ball that lit up when it bounced. They were thrilled.
Two young girls had watched father and son win the prize. Merriman gave the girls, whom he didn’t know, 50 cents so they too could play the game.
Jane Merriman shared with the court the pain of a mother who suddenly, and violently, loses her son:
“He died before I could tell him I love him or kiss him goodbye.”
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
