Man convicted after DUI crash that killed officer | Crime and justice

An Adams County jury has convicted a man of vehicular homicide after a 2020 DUI crash left a Commerce City police detective and another victim dead.

After a three-day trial in Adams County District Court, 49-year-old Fructuoso Rosales-Cano was convicted Thursday of two counts of vehicular homicide and two counts of driving under the influence with two or more priors, according to a news release from the 17th Judicial District district attorney.

The incident occurred on Oct. 16, 2020, when Rosales-Cano was driving his Ford F-350 westbound on Highway 2 near Turnberry Parkway in Commerce City. Rosales-Cano was speeding and passing slower cars on the highway. He then overcorrected to avoid sweeping aside a barrier wall and swerving into oncoming traffic, the news release said.

The suspect then struck the driver’s side of Curt Holland’s car. Holland was a detective with the Commerce City Police Department for four years and was on duty at the time of the accident. The defendant’s truck then spun, overturned and crushed Francesca Dominguez’s Kia Soul.

Both victims died immediately from “devastating injuries,” according to the Office of the Coroner for Adams and Broomfield counties.

The suspect also suffered life-threatening injuries but ultimately survived.

A search of Rosales-Cano’s vehicle found empty beer cans and small liquor bottles, the news release said. Rosales-Cano’s blood alcohol content was 0.294, more than three times the legal limit in Colorado. Rosales-Cano was previously convicted of driving under the influence in 1997 and 2006.

“The damage caused by this defendant is truly unfathomable,” District Attorney Brian Mason said in the news release. “One man’s indefensible decision to drink and drive has left two innocent victims dead and destroyed countless lives. Francesca Dominguez did not deserve to be taken from her loved ones. Detective Curt Holland should be alive today, serving the community he loved, with his wife and two children by his side.”

The sentencing comes one day after the funeral of 33-year-old Evan Dunn, a Golden police officer who was struck and killed in a suspected DUI crash on Highway 58 on Nov. 6.

The suspect in the fatal accident 43-year-old Stephen Geer was official charged of one count of vehicular homicide, two counts of vehicular assault, one count of third-degree assault and one count of driving while intoxicated on Thursday morning.

Rosales-Cano will be sentenced on January 9.