GOLDEN — Kimberly Henderson won’t attend her son’s high school graduation.
She won’t ever be able to coach the young boy through adolescence and support him as he makes his way through life. Henderson can’t even help him cope with the physical pain that killed her and left him — by the grace of God, as a prosecutor said — alive but seriously injured.
“He is going to suffer injury for the rest of his life,” Brad Moloney, a deputy Jefferson County district attorney, said in court Monday.
For that loss, Alisha Huerena, 35, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for causing the violent rollover wreck on U.S. 6 that killed Henderson, 51, and left her 10-year-old son clinging to life.
Huerena was arguing with her husband July 23, 2015, as he drove the pair eastbound on 6th Avenue near Union Boulevard when she grabbed the steering wheel. The action caused their vehicle to slam into Henderson’s Toyota 4Runner and send her barreling off the road.
Huerena then lied to police about what caused the crash, saying she had reached over to tune the radio when the vehicle hit a bump, causing her to hit the steering wheel.
Police say Henderson’s vehicle rolled several times and collided with wire fencing that protects light rail tracks in the area. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Huerena, 35, pleaded guilty in April to reckless manslaughter and second-degree assault with a deadly weapon, court records show. Prosecutors dismissed other allegations — including driving without insurance — in the case.
Her sentence from District Judge Margie Enquist came despite pleas from Huerena’s attorney and her family for a lesser penalty. Enquist said while she recognized nothing would bring Henderson back, she felt the prison term was an appropriate punishment.
“I have no excuse for my actions that have caused you so much pain,” Huerena said as she apologized to Henderson’s family in court. “It must be unbearable.”
Huerena and her husband in the crash in October. Her husband, Andrew Huerena, 36, pleaded guilty May 24 to being an accessory to a crime. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 1.
noted her love for her husband and young son, describing her as “a woman of uncompromising principles and strength.” Photos and a video montage of her were shown in court.
“There are cases in your career that you carry with you,” Sgt. Dave Hoover, the Lakewood police officer who oversaw the investigation into the crash, testified at the sentencing. “And this is one of them.”
Several Lakewood police officers attended the hearing, one of them wiping tears from her eyes during the proceedings.
Huerena’s family sobbed as they left the courtroom after the sentence was handed down. Her attorney declined to comment.
“No parent should ever have to bury a child,” Henderson’s mother told the court. “But no 10-year-old child should ever have to bury their parent.”
