A 24-year-old Golden man was sentenced Monday to eight years in prison for driving while intoxicated in a wrong-way, Interstate 70 crash in Summit County last year that killed a woman, prosecutors say.
Sebastian A. Rivera pleaded guilty in November to three counts in the April 13, 2016, wreck, including vehicular homicide, reckless vehicular assault and driving under the influence. He is also stipulated to serve three years of mandatory parole upon his release from prison, according to the 5th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Authorities say Rivera was driving a 2010 Audi A4 sedan eastbound in the interstate’s westbound lanes just before midnight between Frisco and Copper Mountain when he collided with the victim’s car. Brianna Martz, 30, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of the vehicle Rivera hit, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The vehicle’s driver was seriously hurt, prosecutors say.
The district attorney’s office says before the wreck, Rivera had consumed some alcoholic beverages after getting off work in Breckenridge and that police found marijuana residue and accessories in his car. Toxicology reports also revealed the presence of low levels of alcohol and marijuana in Rivera’s body, according to officials.
“The combination of drug use, alcohol and poor judgment played a deadly role in this terrible event, which took the life of one woman, injured another and devastated several others,” Bruce Brown, 5th Judicial District Attorney, said in a written statement. “The use by the defendant of both alcohol and marijuana magnified his impairment and was a recipe for tragedy.”
