A Texas man accused of causing a high-speed Aurora car crash that killed a 71-year-old woman was convicted of vehicular homicide, the .
Taylor Marcus Douglas, 31, of Huntsville, Texas, was found guilty of vehicular homicide and reckless driving by an Arapahoe County jury on Thursday, court records show.
Vehicular homicide is a felony and reckless driving is a traffic offense.
The , when Janis Camfield and her husband were leaving a dialysis center and turning onto South Chambers Road near East Center Avenue and were t-boned by Douglas.
Witnesses told police Douglas, who was driving a black Nissan Altima, was weaving in and out of traffic and speeding before the crash. Crash data collected from his car showed he was traveling at 98 mph seconds before the crash and investigators estimated he was traveling at 73 mph when he hit the Camfield’s SUV.
Camfield was taken to the hospital with severe injuries and pronounced dead later that day, the DA’s office said. Camfield’s husband was also severely injured in the crash.
Douglas faces a maximum of six years in prison when he is sentenced on Jan. 16. In a statement, District Attorney Amy Padden said she supports “increasing penalties for these offenses to ensure greater accountability and justice.”
“Every victim and every grieving family deserves a justice system that treats vehicular homicide cases with the gravity it warrants,” Padden said. “My office continues to have productive conversations with legislators to pursue reforms that hold offenders fully accountable for these preventable tragedies.”
Douglas was represented by the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender, which does not comment on criminal cases.
