Trucker Guilty for 2022 Accident that Killed 5: the Victims

On June 13, 2022, Jesus Puebla was driving a semi-truck that owned by Carminates Trucking along Interstate-25. Mr. Puebla failed to observe traffic coming to a stop. While traveling 76 miles per hour, he crashed into the rear of a stationary SUV carrying a Wyoming family, killing all five occupants. Among the deceased were high school sweethearts Aaron Godinez and Halie Everts, 3-month-old daughter, Tessleigh, and Aaron’s parents, Emiliano and Christina. The decedents had visited Colorado to celebrate Aaron’s 20^th birthday. They were on their way home to Gillette, Wyoming, at the time of the accident.

Halie and Tessleigh were survived by Halie’s parents, Desiree and Steven Everts. Also among the surviving family members were Halie’s younger siblings, Haden and Halin. The wrongful death lawyers at Bowman Law have followed this case very closely as we represent Desiree and Steven Everts in the civil action against Carminates Trucking and Jesus Puebla. We prepared this article to provide additional information surrounding the wrongful deaths of the five innocent victims on June 13, 2022.

The Accident and Investigation

Mr. Puebla rear-ended the Ford Edge at a very high rate of speed. After the initial impact, the semi-truck continued northbound and rear-ended a second vehicle, which caused the semi-truck to travel into the left shoulder and into the center media where Mr. Puebla collided with the Ford Edge a second time. The second impact forced the Ford Edge to rotate clockwise until it came to a final resting point partially on the left shoulder and partially in the center median. The semi-truck then continued northbound and hit a cable rail before coming to a complete stop on its wheels facing north on the center median against the Ford Edge. The diagram below was pulled from the police report and depicts the events of the accident.

At the time of the accident, Mr. Puebla was driving a semi-truck owned by Carminates Trucking and carrying mail for the United States Postal Service. The police investigation found the brakes on the semi-truck were not functioning properly. According to Trooper D. Lewis of the Colorado State Patrol, the brakes would not have passed an inspection prior to the accident. Moreover, records from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Safety and Fitness Electronic Records System showed the semi-truck had several brake violations that rendered the vehicle out of service. The semi-truck should not have been on the road.

Notwithstanding the brake issues, the police investigation also revealed Mr. Puebla was traveling at 76 miles per hour immediately preceding the accident and that he was operating the semi-truck without a valid commercial driver’s license (“CDL”). Despite ineffective brakes, there were no skid marks to show Mr. Puebla attempted to stop. Ultimately, the Colorado State Patrol concluded the brakes were incidental and that Mr. Puebla was responsible.  

After a six-month investigation, on December 6, 2022, police arrested Mr. Puebla and charged him with five counts of vehicular homicide as well as some lesser offenses. At his arraignment fifty-three weeks after the horrific tragedy, Mr. Puebla pleaded not guilty to all charges. The trial was scheduled to begin November 14, 2023. However, two weeks before the scheduled trial, Mr. Puebla’s legal team filed a Motion to Continue the Trial, arguing they needed additional time to investigate failures of the braking system on the semi-truck.

According to Mr. Puebla’s Motion to Continue, the proximate cause of the accident was equipment failure and not the actions of Mr. Puebla. As argued in the Motion to Continue, Mr. Puebla “obvious criminal act was only supplanted by the clearly reckless and malicious conduct of the trucking company two years prior to the collision…the “truck should never have been on the road.” Weld County Judge Allison Esser granted Mr. Puebla’s Motion and pushed the trial to begin March 18, 2024.

During the trial, Mr. Puebla attempted to downplay his involvement in the accident. According to his legal team, “it would be a total injustice to blame Mr. Puebla for this, simply because you want to hold somebody – anybody accountable.” Mr. Puebla testified he was aware his CDL expired but did not realize it meant he was not allowed to drive a semi-truck. Mr. Puebla’s defense team argued the trucking company should be held accountable because it entrusted him with the semi-truck knowing the brakes were not functioning properly. According to Mr. Puebla’s defense team, he “was in just as much danger as anyone going down the road.”

In response, the Prosecuting Attorney, Yvette Guthrie, told the jury the trucking company was not operating the semi-truck at the time of the accident. Rather, Mr. Puebla was the driver traveling 76 miles per hour with traffic congesting a few hundred yards in front of him. Prosecutor Guthrie played a 911 call for the jury where the caller informed dispatch Mr. Puebla “went through those vehicles like butter. He didn’t even try to stop.”  At the conclusion of the 9-day trial, the jury deliberated for just five hours, finding Mr. Puebla guilty on all counts.

Surviving Family Members Seek Justice

The surviving family members from both families attended all 9 days of trial. In speaking with Desiree about the accident, she remembers waiting on a call from Halie to let her know they were starting the 5-hour trip back to Wyoming from Denver. She remembers feeling worried when she had not heard from Halie. Desiree also recalls calling her daughter’s phone several times, but reaching her voicemail in every attempt.

After several attempts, Desiree received a call from Aaron’s sister, Abigail Rae Godinez, who expressed similar concerns because she had not heard from her brother or parents. Desiree and her husband, Steven, immediately traveled to Abigail’s home, where they scoured the internet and called police, highway patrol, and hospitals. Through their efforts, they discovered preliminary news articles about the accident. Unfortunately, the news article did not identify the victims, nor provide any information about survivors.

When she saw the article, Desiree felt it in her core that her daughter and granddaughter were in the accident. She and Steven immediately returned home to pack to travel to Colorado. They believed it would be helpful for them to search the hospitals. While packing, Desiree received a call from a Colorado State Trooper, who informed her the five occupants, including her daughter and granddaughter, had all died. The call marked the beginning of an unimaginable journey through grief and despair.

Desiree dropped to her knees. According to Desiree, “I didn’t want it to be real. It was like a bad dream.” Desiree proceeded to notify Steven, Haden and Halin of the tragedy.  Without question, the Everts and Godines families suffered an incomprehensible loss. The void left is unfathomable, leaving the Everts and Godines families shattered and grappling with the cruel reality of life’s fragility.

Halie was raised in Gillette, graduating from Westwood High school, where she played volleyball her junior year and graduated in 2020. According to friends and family members, she was artistic and enjoyed creating unique pieces, including pottery. She enjoyed camping with Aaron and spending time with her younger siblings. Aaron graduated from Westwood High School. He liked to cook and grill, and enjoyed the outdoors. Whenever he had a chance, Aaron would go camping and. Outside of his interests, Aaron worked as a coach lead at Home Depot at the time of the collision.

Aaron and Halie met during freshman year in high school and, after four years of dating, their lives became blended. In December of 2020, Aaron asked Steven for permission to marry his daughter. Fourteen months later, on March 7, 2022, the young couple welcomed a beautiful baby daughter to the world. According to Desiree, it was amazing to see Halie’s heart swell with an indescribable rush of emotions the moment she held her daughter in her arms for the first time. Exhausted, yet exhilarated from the intensity of childbirth, she felt an overwhelming flood of love wash over her. Desiree recalls watching her first-born daughter gaze into her daughter’s tiny’s face filled with a sense of wonder and awe at the precious little life she brought into the world.

Every fiber of Halie’s being was consumed by an intense maternal instinct, a fierce desire to protect and nurture her daughter with every breath she took. With every passing moment in three months, her love for her baby girl deepened, transcending words and surpassing anything she had ever known before. From the moment her daughter entered the world through the devastating moment she was taken from this world, Halie found herself longing to be near Tessleigh. The mere sight of her daughter’s sleeping form filled her with an overwhelming sense of peace and contentment. Every coo, every smile, every little moment her daughter made brought Halie immeasurable joy and happiness.  

Since the horrific accident, the news outlets have focused on the criminal case of Mr. Puebla. For over 20 months, this case has captivated the public with oftentimes unremitting coverage. Afterall, this tragedy had similarities in a criminal case involving Roger Aguilera-Mederos, who killed 4 people on April 25, 2019, when his brakes failed on the downhill grade on Interstate-70 eastbound outside Denver. In that case, the jury sentenced Mr. Aguilera-Mederos to 110 years but Governor Polis later commuted the prison term, reducing the sentence to 10 years.

It goes without saying justice is at the heart of the United States judicial system. The concept of justice, however, can often mean different things and can manifest in different. To many people, justice is the product of a society that values fairness. When a person is accused of a crime, the American judicial system establishes the right to a fair trial to determine guilt. The right to a fair trial is the cornerstone of democracy, helping to ensure fair and just societies. Hence why members of the public expressed opposition to Governor Polis’s commuting Mr. Aguilera-Mederos’ prison sentence.

A fundamental principle behind the right to a fair trial is the contention that every person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. It seems commonsensical but justice is best served when trials take place without undue delay. Speedy trials help protect the reliability of evidence while minimizing the human impact of criminal proceedings on everyone involved. Some readers will agree justice was served because Mr. Puebla was found guilty on all 10 counts.

Was justice served when the jury reached a unanimous verdict that Mr. Puebla was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt? While the result is the correct one, time will tell whether justice is served. For the Everts and Godines families, their grief is raw and unyielding. They are forced to continue to grapple with the profound loss of young lives. According to Desiree, the absence of her daughter and young granddaughter is too vast to comprehend. Her heartache reverberates through the community, touching the lives of all who knew her, as they gather around the Everts family, offering solace and support in their darkest hours.

Amidst the wreckage of shattered dreams and lost lives, Desiree continues to focus on any glimmer of hope. She constantly looks at photographs of her family and cherishes the moments she has had with them. While Mr. Puebla was convicted of all 10 criminal counts, it amounts to nothing more than a bittersweet victory, as no verdict can ever undo the pain or bring back the loved ones lost. In the absence of any real justice, Desiree and her family oscillate between self-recrimination on one hand and anger aimed at Mr. Puebla on the other.

The Civil Wrongful Death Case

The civil case against Mr. Puebla and Carminates Trucking was stayed until the criminal proceedings concluded. At this point, the wrongful death claims for Halie and Tessleigh will pick back up. Stay tuned for update on the wrongful death case.