Colorado: Retired Army Colonel Pleads Guilty In Deadly Trooper Hit &; Run
The man accused of hitting and killing a Colorado State Trooper has pleaded guilty to two felony counts. Eric Henderson, a 52-year-old retired colonel with the U.S. Army, pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and tampering with evidence.
He took the plea deal on Wednesday afternoon in a hit-and-run that killed 33-year-old Trooper Jaimie Jursevics. She was on the scene of a crash on Interstate 25 south of Castle Rock in November when Henderson, intoxicated, struck her and drove away. Henderson’s friend told police they were drinking before, during, and after a Denver Broncos game. According to court documents, as Henderson approached Jursevics at the crash scene Jursevics attempted to waive Henderson off the road when she was struck. “After he ran over the state trooper and left her dead in the road he drove down the road a bit and then went through the process with his passenger of making it less likely that he would be held accountable for this crime, hiding certain pieces of evidence — bottles, alcohol — those sorts of things,” District Attorney George Brauchler said.
Henderson’s attorneys said he decided to take the plea deal so both the Jursevics and Henderson families could be spared a lengthy emotional trial.
“D.J. (Jursevics’ husband) won’t have to sit through a week, two weeks, three weeks of a trial about how his bride and mother of his brand new baby was run over and killed on I-25; yeah, I think that’s a good thing,” Brauchler said.
Brauchler told CBS4’s Howard Nathan he’d release Henderson’s blood-alcohol content during sentencing.
Henderson could face five to nearly 14 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for 9 a.m. on June 28.
Henderson retired from the Army in June 2013 after a 27-year career.
Jursevics left behind a husband and an infant daughter.
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