AURORA | A man with five DUI convictions — including a 1995 vehicular homicide case — has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for being a repeat drunk driver.
Pedro Reynaldo Tun, 40, had been convicted of driving drunk four times before Aurora police arrested him once again in October 2015 for driving under the influence near East Sixth Avenue and Interstate 225, Arapahoe County prosecutors said in a statement.
Tun was later convicted of that fifth DUI charge, and on Wednesday Arapahoe County District Court Judge Natalie Chase sentenced him to 15-and-a-half years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed by law.
Prosecutors commended the judge’s decision.
“Sentences like Judge Chase’s in this case are the clearest signal to our community that our criminal justice system will not tolerate those who wantonly put at risk the lives of our families and neighbors on our roads,” District Attorney George H. Brauchler said in a statement.
In the vehicular homicide case, prosecutors said Tun was driving drunk in Douglas County when he crashed and killed a passenger in his car.
He was later deported numerous times and deemed a habitual traffic offender, but continued to drive drunk, prosecutors said.
At the time of the most recent arrest, prosecutors said Tun’s blood-alcohol level was 0.260. The limit in Colorado is .08.
“This was a drunk driver whose action had already taken a life, and that didn’t wake him up to the consequences of his actions,” Deputy District Attorney Jesse DuBois, who prosecuted the case, said in a statement. “This case is why we have a felony DUI law — when nothing else has worked.”