LIMON, Colo.—Colorado officials say the inmate who died in a rollover crash on Interstate 70 that also killed a prison officer had spent most of his life behind bars.
Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti says 57-year-old Andres Valdez died in the crash Monday near Genoa. The State Patrol says the accident also killed 22-year-old private prison company employee Grace Cortez of Stratton and injured eight other inmates and another employee of Corrections Corporation of America.
Cortez was driving the van when it rolled as the group headed from the Kit Carson Correctional Facility in Burlington to the Limon Correctional Facility. KUSA-TV in Denver reports () Cortez had worked for the company since May.
Sanguinetti tells KUSA that Valdez had been convicted of second-degree kidnapping, theft, sex assault, forgery and menacing.
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Information from: KUSA-TV,
