Driver who killed two people while fleeing police in stolen vehicle sentenced
A man who killed two people as tried to escape police in a stolen vehicle in 2021 was sentenced last week to 40 years in state prison.
Nicholas Villarini, 28, was ordered by Adams County district court judge on Jan. 26 to serve 20 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections for each of two counts of Vehicular Homicide-DUI. More than a year of that time (458 days, to be exact) was subtracted from those sentences, a credit for time Villarini has already spent behind bars in the county jail. But the judge added on a mandatory four years of parole to begin once Villarini is released from prison.
According to case documents, Villarini raced away from two Brighton Police Department cruisers which converged on his vehicle in a Brighton neighborhood late in the morning of Oct. 26, 2021. The first officer had found Villarini and a female passenger asleep in the car, a 2011 Kia Sorento. He also determined the Kia was in fact reported stolen from its owner in Westminster. As the second officer arrived and tried to "pinch" the Kia between the police vehicles, Villarini drove his vehicle into the second police car, as stated in the arrest affidavit. Villarini then accelerated out of the cul-de-sac with the first officer following with lights and sirens.
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That began a pursuit that lasted two minutes, starting in that 5200 block of Goldfinch Street and ending near the intersection of Bridge Street and Mt. Bierstadt Street, according to police accounts. There, Villarini ran a stop sign at the intersection and struck another car. The female passenger of that car, 21-year-old Dulce Castro Perez of Hudson, was ejected from her car.
Later, investigators found the speedometer of the Kia showing 71 mph at the time of impact.
Villarini continued a short distance in his damaged Kia and struck a male pedestrian, 25-year-old Gustavo Mosqueda Ortega of Montrose.
Both Castro Perez and Ortega died a short time later in a hospital.
Villarini received treatment for serious injuries in the crash and was booked into jail after treatment. The female passenger in his Kia was also treated for injuries at a hospital.
"Today has been a very difficult day for our community," Brighton PD Chief Paul Southard stated the day of the incident. "Loss of life is never easy, in this case, the loss of people who were going about their everyday lives. Our hearts are heavy for the families and friends of both individuals whose lives were tragically cut short, as well as the other victims of the crash."
The 17th Judicial District Attorney's Office initially charged Villarini with 1st Degree Murder. Villarini pleaded not guilty. But the two sides reached a plea agreement on the vehicular homicide counts less than two months ago.
Meanwhile, the two BPD officers who chased Villarini were immediately put on administrative leave after the accident. After a seven-month investigation, the district attorney's office declined to cite or charge the officers for their actions. But DA Brian Mason was critical of the judgement to pursue by the first officer, Charles Hundley.
"Although the evidence does not support the filing of criminal charges against the officer, I nevertheless find the officer's decision to engage in this high-speed chase deeply troubling," Mason stated in a decision letter. "I believe the officer's decision to engage in the high-speed chase was unnecessarily dangerous and a disproportionate response to the alleged criminal activity and potential risk posed by the suspect."
