DENVER — A teen was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to killing a 31-year-old man during a road rage incident on Interstate 70 in 2022.
Jameel James, 18, was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
In September, James pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Prosecutors said he shot Kevin Piaskowski on I-70 near the Northfield/Quebec Street exit in July 2022. His fiancée said Piaskowski was driving home from his job at Denver International Airport.
“I would give anything to have Kevin back,” Piaskowski's fiancée Tamra Holton said. “You don’t really imagine one of your loved ones being murdered, so I haven’t really got to grieve or mourn the good times Kevin and I had together, yet. There’s just a lot of fear behind how he passed away.”
Another driver's dashcam caught the shooting, which showed a Dodge Ram truck swerve around Piaskowski's Subaru Outback. Muzzle flashes and gunshots can be seen and heard in the video.
The Dodge truck, which was reported stolen from Northglenn, then slammed into the back of a semi-trailer and crashed a second time into a side wall and an SUV before coming to a stop.
“I won’t bring myself to watch it,” Holton said. “I've heard it, but I can't bring myself to watch my fiancé get murdered.”
Piaskowski's car was found about a quarter-mile from the first crash. He was suffering from gunshot wounds and was rushed to a hospital, where he died.
James, who was 17 years old at the time, ran from the crash scene. Denver Police captured him 12 days later.
“Nothing is going to bring Kevin back, and I think that’s the justice we would all hope for,” Holton said. “To feel like I didn’t get the chance to say goodbye. I was just waiting for him to come home. It just lives with me. There’s not one day that goes by that I don’t think about it.”
Holton was inside the courtroom when James was sentenced Tuesday.
“I think we were all terrified and holding our breaths,” she said. “There were a lot of emotions just built up in that courtroom, and when we heard 22 years, it was just like a huge weight off our chest and relief.”
From September 2023: Teen pleads guilty to killing man on I-70
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