AURORA | A 28-year-old Aurora man has been sentenced to nearly two decades in prison for striking and killing a young Aurora couple while driving drunk two years ago.
An Arapahoe County District Court judge sentenced Cameron Smith to 18 years of incarceration last week in connection with the deaths of 23-year-old Amber Hamblin and 25-year-old Ja’Rel Woods.
Authorities said Smith had a blood-alcohol level several times higher than the legal limit when he he broadsided Hamblin’s 2002 Lexus RX near the intersection of Interstate 225 and East Mississippi Avenue in the early morning hours of Oct. 27, 2019.
Hamblin, who was driving her vehicle, died at a hospital a short time later.
Woods, who was a passenger in Hamblin’s Lexus, died a week later of his injuries, which included spinal fractures, a broken pelvis and a collapsed lung, according to the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Smith ditched his wrecked car and fled the scene on foot after the collision, though he was arrested a short time later at a nearby gas station. Aurora police linked him to the crash when they found his license and wallet in his battered 2003 Ford Explorer.
“This defendant showed no value for human life: He was driving with a blood-alcohol content of more than three times the legal limit when he struck the victims’ vehicle,” Deputy District Attorney Casey Brown said in a statement. “Then, he looked in the wrecked car, saw the damage he had caused, and fled without calling for help.”
Smith had previously been convicted of driving recklessly and while impaired. He had an open warrant related to a traffic infraction at the time of the fatal collision.
As part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, he agreed to accept convictions for felony vehicular homicide and first-degree assault in his case related to the October 2019 crash.
“It pains me to see yet another case where a defendant is drunk and yet makes the decision to get behind the wheel, with fatal consequences,” District Attorney John Kellner said in a statement.
Smith is currently detained at the Arapahoe County jail awaiting transfer to state prison.