A 35-year-old man will spend more than a decade in prison for hitting and killing a woman while driving drunk in Wheat Ridge last year.

Jefferson County District Judge Phillip McNulty sentenced Jian Bin Chen to 12 years in prison on April 3 for the DUI crash that killed Jody Chavez in Wheat Ridge on March 13, 2025, according to a news release from the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

Officers responded to the two-vehicle crash on eastbound Interstate 70 near Ward Road around 5 a.m. that day, according to a social media post by the Wheat Ridge Police Department. Callers had reported that Chen was driving the wrong way on I-70 in a Lexus.

Surveillance camera footage showed multiple motorists flashing their lights at Chen as he continued driving in the wrong direction and vehicle data showed that he was traveling at 51 mph and never applied his brakes before striking Chavez’s vehicle, according to the district attorney’s office.

Chavez’s two-year-old child was also in the vehicle, but survived with minor injuries.

Chen’s Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) was .150 — nearly twice the legal limit — two hours after the crash.

Chen later pleaded guilty to eight counts on Feb. 25, including vehicular homicide and reckless driving. He also pleaded guilty to his second DUI offense. He received the maximum sentence on the vehicular homicide charge.

The defendant had previously been convicted of a DUI in 2019 and later pleaded guilty in 2020 for evading a court-ordered ignition interlock device.

“She loved being a wife and a mom,” Steven Chavez, the victim’s husband, told the court. “To Mr. Chen, twelve years sounds like a long time… But in reality, twelve years is a drop in the bucket. At least he gets to go home to his family. My wife will never get to come home.”

“Anything less than the maximum sentence in this case would seriously undermine the tragic consequences,” Judge McNulty said.