An Arapahoe County jury found an Aurora man guilty of vehicular homicide in a DUI-related crash that killed a mother and a six-year-old daughter and seriously injured two others. 

32-year-old Juan Pablo Pascual-Licea was found guilty after a three-day trial following the DUI crash that occurred on April 8, 2022. In the incident, Pascual-Licea was driving the wrong way on S. Chambers Road near E. 6th Avenue in a truck, according to a press release from the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

Pascual-Licea’s truck was moving at over 80 mph when he struck an SUV. In the SUV was a father, mother, 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter on their way home from celebrating the daughter’s birthday. The mother and daughter were pronounced dead at the hospital. The father and son suffered serious injuries and survived.

Aurora Police Department discovered that the man had hit a bicyclist and almost hit a group of teenagers in a crosswalk before the crash. An hour after the crash, his blood alcohol content was .181, more than twice the legal limit.

The jury found Pascual-Licea guilty of:

• Two counts of vehicular homicide – DUI
• Two counts of vehicular assault – DUI
• Child abuse – knowingly/recklessly causing serious bodily injury
• Child abuse – knowingly/recklessly causing death

“There is no excuse or justification for the defendant’s egregious actions that night,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Doug Bechtel said in the press release. “A father woke up several days later in a hospital bed, only to learn his wife and daughter were dead, and his son would have to learn how to walk again. Their lives are forever changed based on the defendant’s inexcusable behavior to drive drunk.”

Pascual-Licea is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 15. He faces at least six years in prison, based on the multiple felony convictions. 

In response to an unrelated, suspected DUI crash that injured two police officers and two firefighters in Commerce City on Dec. 7, Master Trooper Gary Cutler of the Colorado State Patrol said impaired driving “has to stop.”

“We need people to actually start taking responsibility on this,” Cutler said. “People need to actually listen. We’ve talked, we’ve talked, we’ve talked and nobody’s listening… There’s no reason that anyone needs to be drinking and driving.”

Between the beginning of the year and Nov. 1, Colorado Department of Transportation has noted 194 fatalities from impaired driving crashes in the state.

There were 245 in the same time period last year.