Grassroots Rally Team

Hernandez Sentenced To 60 Years For Fatal Crash

CENTENNIAL | A judge sentenced Francis Hernandez to 60 years in prison Monday for causing a 2008 crash that killed three people, including a toddler in an ice cream shop.

The sentence means the 25-year-old Hernandez will likely be behind bars until he is a senior citizen, but it falls far short of the maximum 108-year sentence that prosecutors and the victims families asked for.

“I’m disappointed,” said Marat Kudlis, whose son, Marten, was inside a Baskin-Robbins in September 2008 when Hernandez, who was driving more than 80 mph on South Havana Street, crashed into a nearby pickup truck. The impact killed the two women in the truck, Patricia Guntharp and Deb Serecky, and sent an electrical box smashing into the ice cream shop, killing Marten.

After an eight-day trial, a jury in February convicted Hernandez of all 19 counts against him, including three counts of vehicular homicide and one of child abuse resulting in death.

Prosecutors said during the trial that Hernandez was speeding at more than 80 mph and ran a red light at East Mississippi Avenue that night. After the crash, he fled the scene and was arrested a short time later at his Denver apartment...