A Boulder District judge on Wednesday sentenced a man responsible for causing a 2015 fatal crash in Boulder Canyon to 32 years in prison, accepting the sentencing recommendation from prosecutors.
Kelley Daniel Wiggins, 38, pleaded guilty in September to vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, reckless endangerment and child abuse. Prosecutors dropped first-degree murder and several other charges in exchange for the plea.
Prosecutors allege that Wiggins intentionally crashed a Pontiac Firebird on Boulder Canyon Drive in August 2015 while under the influence of marijuana and alcohol. Alexus Valentin, 21, died after being ejected from the car and thrown into Boulder Creek, where she drowned.
Judge Ingrid Bakke said that although Wiggins seems “to some degree” to be a better person today than he was the day of the crash, he didn’t “come to court with clean hands as others who have been sentenced for a similar thing. I think the aggravating factors too much outweigh the mitigating factors, in spite of the gallant efforts by your attorneys,” the judge said. “They gave you a heck of a good deal. You were facing life in prison. … You dodged a bullet.”
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