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Sentence upheld for ice cream store crash

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An Arapahoe County judge won't reduce the 60-year prison sentence for an illegal immigrant convicted of causing a 2008 crash that killed three people in Aurora.

The Aurora Sentinel reports Francis Hernandez, who was found guilty of vehicular homicide, had asked Judge John Wheeler to consider reducing his sentence. But Wheeler told Hernandez that his actions behind bars have not warranted a lower sentence.

Records show that Hernandez assaulted another inmate and was caught multiple times with razor blades while in prison.

Police said Hernandez was going two times the speed limit when he crashed into a truck, killing 49-year-old Patricia Guntharp and 51-year-old Deb Serecky. The impact drove both vehicles into an ice cream shop.

Inside, waiting for ice cream with his mother, was 3-year-old Marten Kudlis. He died after being pulled from the wreckage. 

Records show Hernandez is an illegal immigrant and had been arrested more than a dozen times by nine different state police departments. Some of the arrests were for criminal impersonation and forgery; the bulk were for traffic violations, including driving without a license and without insurance.

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