Colorado driver pleads guilty to felony charges following crash into wrestling team's bus

A Denver man accused of speeding more than 40 mph over the speed limit and hitting a school bus carrying a high school wrestling team recently pleaded guilty to seven felony charges. 

Sixteen people were taken to hospitals following the Dec. 6, 2025 crash, including 13 student-athletes and two coaches who were aboard the bus. 

A passenger riding in the accused driver's car, 18-year-old Julio Vasquez-Gonzalez of Lakewood, died five days after the crash.  

That driver, 23-year-old Andrew Logan Miller, had pleaded not guilty in June to more than a dozen charges that police investigators initially filed against him. Miller changed that on Sept. 10, pleading guilty to Vehicular Homicide-Reckless Driving and six counts of Vehicular Assault-Reckless Driving, along with one misdemeanor count of Reckless Endangerment. 

According to investigators with the Lakewood Police Department, Miller was driving an SUV southbound on Kipling Avenue when his car collided with the small bus. The bus was turning left in front of Miller as it attempted to access the ramp to westbound 6th, according to LPD. 

The bus was carrying the Grand Junction Central High School team back to its hotel after dinner, Mesa County Valley School District 51 stated in a press release. The group had competed earlier that day in a tournament at Arapahoe High School in Centennial. 

One of the coaches, Micah Espinoza, posted on social media that his son, Justice, was badly injuried in the crash. Justice was a sophomore team captain who took second place in the 106-pound classification at the tournament, per his father's post.

A follow-up post showed Justice gingerly walking out of the hospital five days after the collision.

Later, Justice Espinoza and Cruz Moncada, the team's 138-pound wrestler, watched from the stands in February when the team returned to the Denver area for the state wrestling tournament. Espinoza told CBS Colorado at that time that he'd torn an aorta, ruptured his spleen and required stitches for a head wound. Moncada said he had a skull fracture. Another wrestler, Kyle Weaver, said he was thrown 25-30 feet from the bus upon impact. 

"I'm so proud of this team," Micah Espinoza told CBS Colorado on Sunday. "We're all back and Justice is doing amazing."

Micah Espinoza said he was driving the team's bus that night. Miller's car came over a hill and gave him no chance to react, he said. He pulled his unconscious son from the bus before tending to the other wrestlers. 

"Initially, (doctors) told us it would be a six-month, at least, recovery," Micah Espinoza said. "(Justice) returned (to athletics) in 10 weeks.

"That accident changed all of us," he continued. "I believe adversity creates greatness. There is good in all things. It just made us better and stronger."

Andrew Miller is scheduled to be sentenced in Jefferson County court on Nov. 17.