DENVER - A Denver District Court judge handed down a 10-year prison sentence on Friday to a man whose drunken, wrong-way drive on Interstate 70 last year killed a 41-year-old father from Golden.
Jason Brito told the judge immediately before receiving the sentence that he was sorry for his actions back in June.
"All of the apologies will never undo the hatred and the pain I have caused," he said. "I know I am not perfect, but believe me when I say I am not a bad guy."
It was a feeling that the family of Felipe Flores was reluctantly willing to accept.
"I personally think the sentence was fair," Daniel Domgaard, Flores' stepson, said. "[Hatred] doesn't do anybody any good. It's just a poison in your soul. We can only just keep praying."
Calls came into Denver's 911 center one after the other very early in the morning of June 5, 2011. Drivers reported seeing a blue SUV traveling eastbound in the westbound lanes of I-70 near the Quebec exit.
Seconds later, one caller screamed, "He crashed! He crashed into a car! Oh my gosh!"
Prosecutors say Brito's blood alcohol content was close to .273 when his Jeep Cherokee hit Flores' Nissan Sentra. The threshold for DUI in Colorado is 0.08. Flores was killed and Brito was hospitalized and arrested for vehicular homicide.
The crash itself was the kind of crushing blow that Flores' 13-year old daughter will carry with her for the rest of her life.
"That night I lost a father. I lost some joy that I had in my heart. I won't get any of that back. That stuff is gone," Maria said Flores shortly after Friday's sentencing hearing. "All I now have left are memories. I really don't want to let those go."
Dawn Flores, Felipe's wife, told 9NEWS this case should put a face to the cost of drunk driving in this community.
"Nobody came out of that courtroom winning. Everybody in that courtroom was hurt," she said.
Domgaard put it this way: "Get a designated driver or call a friend or family member."
Domgaard says Felipe Flores, an elite pool player, was the kind of guy who would insist on it.
"If one of his teammates was drinking too much, he would cut him off, tell him to get some coffee, tell the waitress to stop serving him and we'd get him a ride home," he said.
He says he'll be paying attention to the day when Brito eventually gets out of prison.
"Sobriety would be a big step in showing that he is sorry for what he's done to this family," he said.
(KUSA-TV © 2012 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
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