Man pleads guilty in DUI crash that killed two near Broomfield school
Jose Menjivar faced charges four times for alcohol-related driving offenses prior to the 2023 crash that killed Riordan and Melissa Powell.
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A drunken driver who careened into a mother and her teenage son outside of Broomfield High School last year, killing both, has pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular homicide.
Jose Menjivar, 38, faced charges four times for alcohol-related driving offenses in Boulder County prior to the December 2023 crash, in which he struck the vehicle of Melissa and Riordan Powell. Menjivar was traveling at two times the posted speed limit when he hit the mother and son, according to police.
Investigators found at least two empty beer cans on the floor of Menjivar’s vehicle, another beer can on the roadway and an open case of beer in the back of the vehicle with missing cans. Menjivar’s blood-alcohol content was tested at .249, more than three times the legal limit of .08.
Menjivar has been deported four times — in 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2015 — and was serving his sentence for an earlier DUI case in a work-release program at the time of the crash, prosecutors and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said. ICE lodged an immigration detainer with Broomfield County on Dec. 18.
Menjivar pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide Sept. 19, according to court records. He is being held at the Broomfield Detention Center pending his sentencing, which is scheduled for Friday.
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