COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — A Brighton dad had consumed at least two cans of beer before he got behind the wheel and caused a crash that killed his daughter last week, according to an affidavit obtained by Denver7 Wednesday.
Commerce City police responded to the single-vehicle rollover crash on eastbound I-76 and US 85 shortly before 11 p.m. on Feb. 12 after witnesses reported seeing a white truck driving erratically on the road.
At the scene, police found the truck in a the field on the south side of I-76 and a body covered with a white blanket close to the driver side of the vehicle.
Inside the truck, responding officers found “what appeared to be an empty Modelo 6 pack box” along with two unopened cans of Modelo beer – one inside the truck, the other outside on the passenger side, according to the arrest affidavit.
A witness who spoke to police at the scene said the truck passed her on the left in a dirt lane. It then appeared to pop a tire and went toward a fence which the witness described as a “wall.”
Another witness said the truck swerved several times prior to the crash and noticed the white truck’s tire pop. The witness told police she saw the truck try to get back on the roadway before it drove toward the fence, arresting documents show.
A third witness told police he only saw the white truck go off the roadway but did not see the crash. He said he went to check out the crash, where he found 39-year-old Aaron Aguirre-Garay, who was lying on the truck bed.
He said Aguirre-Garay gave him his wife’s number and stated to police that while he was no expert, he thought that Garay smelled “like alcohol,” the affidavit states. Aguirre-Garay was then taken to a hospital where police then contacted the victim’s mother.
She told officers she had been talking with her daughter on the phone prior to the crash and that her daughter told her she was done with league practice at Regis University. The woman told officers her daughter asked her when she would get home so they could pick up pizza for dinner, according to the affidavit.
The woman then told officers her son dropped her daughter off and that her husband, who she identified as Aguirre-Garay, was supposed to pick her up.
She then told officers that Aguirre-Garay had been working earlier in the day and went to a friend’s house in Hudson afterward to help out a friend with a car issue near I-76. The woman told police Garay dropped the friend off and then went to Regis University to pick up their daughter.
A Commerce City officer then interviewed Aguirre-Garay at the hospital. During the interview, the officer said he noticed that Aguirre-Garay’s speech “sounded slurred and sounded like he had a thick tongue,” according to the affidavit.
“I looked at [Aguirre-Garay’s] eyes, and they were bloodshot and watery with a pink/reddish color around the whites of his eyes,” arresting documents show.
The officer said he could also get a hint of a unknown alcoholic beverage while talking to him and that Aguirre-Garay did not make much eye contact during the interview.
The suspect told police he initially drank “a couple beers,” then “like a six pack,” later telling the officer he had consumed “three or four beers,” then “one" where his friend’s car had broken-down, "one or two at friend’s house,” and finally "two beers total” before picking up his daughter from Regis University, the affidavit shows.
Aguirre-Garay then refused field sobriety tests and also refused a blood draw when requested by police.
The suspect, who was arrested the next day, is now facing several charges including vehicular homicide, child abuse causing death, driving under the influence, and reckless driving.
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