Hector Frias-Chavarria Sentenced For Drunken & Deadly Road Rage Crash
ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - An Arapahoe County judge sentenced a 24-year-old man to six years in prison for killing a woman in a drunken road rage crash. The crash happened in unincorporated Arapahoe County on Sept. 8, 2019.
Hector Frias-Chavarria pleaded guilty to one count of vehicular homicide DUI and five counts of vehicular assault DUI on Feb. 8, 2021.
Frias-Chavarria was driving in a Dodge Ram on Watkins Road when he got into a "minor traffic incident" and started chasing a pickup truck. He tried to pass the other truck when he slammed into a Volkswagen Jetta traveling at 60 mph.
Valerie Vigil was the front seat passenger in that car. She died at the scene. The driver and three other passengers in that car were seriously injured.
The crash caused the other pickup truck to crash into the Dodge Ram. That driver suffered moderate injuries, and two juvenile passengers suffered minor injuries.
Frias-Chavarria also received minor injuries, but his passenger was seriously hurt.
Investigators say he was drunk at the time. They add the engine and transaxle from the Jetta were thrown into a nearby field from the force of the crash.
"This defendant made the decision to drink and get in his truck with passengers and cause this violent wreck that caused the gruesome death of my daughter," Vigil's father told the court on Sept. 23. "He robbed the world of a very kind and compassionate person …. This is not about revenge – it is about justice."