Arapahoe District Judge Natalie Chase sentenced repeat drunken driver Pedro Reynaldo Tun, 40, to 15½ years in prison under Colorado's still-young felony DUI law.
Tun was convicted of driving under the influence four times, in Arapahoe, Jefferson and Adams counties, according to a release from 18th Judicial District DA's office. The final DUI arrest came on Oct. 31, 2015, in Aurora.
Colorado voters passed a law in 2015 that makes a fourth conviction for driving while impaired a felony.
Tun has also been convicted of vehicular homicide in Douglas County after his reckless driving led to a car crash that killed his passenger in 1995, has been deported multiple times and his drivers license had been revoked.
He was found guilty of driving under the influence with three or more prior offenses, as well as the misdemeanor and traffic offenses of alcohol-related driving under restraint, driving as a habitual traffic offender and driving without insurance or registration.
The sentences, to be served consecutively, are for 12 years in prison for the DUI felony, and 3½ years in jail for the lesser charges.
Last month, the Associated Press reported that felony DUI charges were reversing a decrease in prison populations across Colorado. The new law has led to more than 1,100 new felony DUI cases filed in state courts.
Denver saw its first felony DUI trial in November of last year. Matthew Allen, 40, was found guilty of driving while ability-impaired for the fourth time since 2004.
This is not the 18th Judicial District's first felony DUI case. In August of last year, 54-year-old Doyle Carmack of Aurora was given probation despite prosecutors' fighting for a four-year community corrections sentence. Carmack is a five-time convicted drunken driver on his third felony DUI conviction.
