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An unlicensed, teenage illegal immigrant who killed a young Colorado woman in a car wreck after he was racing at almost twice the speed limit walked free this week because of a lenient plea deal offered by a progressive district attorney’s office.
As a result, an Arapahoe County juvenile court judge reportedly sentenced the 15-year-old perpetrator to only two years of probation and 100 hours of community service in the July 2024 death of Kaitlyn Weaver, 24. Juvenile court proceedings are typically held in private in courtrooms closed to the public.
The teen was racing his mother’s Jeep Cherokee at over 90 mph through a posted 45-mph street in a residential neighborhood when he slammed into Weaver’s Volkswagen in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado.
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Weaver was speaking with her boyfriend on speakerphone when she stopped at a stop sign. She allowed another car to pass just before the reckless teen crashed into her as she crossed the intersection, her father said.
“She didn’t even see him coming,” her father John Weaver told reporters. “That’s how fast he was going.”
Weaver was kept on life support for two days before she was taken off and her organs were donated. She was a born caregiver, her father said. A former volunteer at a suicide hotline, the young woman was employed at a drug rehabilitation center.
The suspect’s name is withheld under a state law that protects the identity of minor offenders. Arapahoe County District Attorney Amy Padden’s office offered the teen the plea deal if he admitted his guilt and promised to attend school and not break any more laws.
Police originally arrested the boy and charged him with vehicular homicide. At the time, prosecutors told the Weavers the offense was a “no plea offer” case, the father said.
That changed in January when the district attorney’s office switched hands to Padden, who received endorsements from Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.
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“Why the change?” the father told CBS News in Colorado. “If he had taken a firearm and recklessly just shot it and killed someone, this would be a different case. They would be pushing it completely differently. There’s no deterrence.”
Investigators said the teenager’s mother initially planned to send him back to Colombia, but the boy has now filed for asylum, which would complicate any effort to deport him.
Arapahoe County Assistant District Attorney Ryan Brackley told CBS an experienced prosecutor handled the plea deal without any direct involvement by the new administration. A judge, he noted, upheld the deal after hearing from the family.
In a Facebook post this week, district attorney addressed Weaver’s death as “tragic” but focused on speeding and the “powerful reminder that it’s not just alcohol and drug-impaired driving that takes lives.”
“We acknowledge Kaitlyn Weaver’s death was the direct result of a crash caused by an unlicensed teenager driving at nearly twice the posted speed limit,” she wrote.
Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
