A 39-year-old Tucson man who pleaded guilty to driving his jacked-up pickup truck over another car, killing three men, was sentenced to 15 years in prison Wednesday.
“I am very sorry this happened. . . . My heart goes out to the victims and their families,” Jeffery Glorioso said. “If I could change it, I would.”
According to police, Glorioso was speeding south on Scottsdale Road in his Dodge pickup when he overtook a 1990 Ford Tempo and went over it, crushing it.
Phoenix residents Andrez Carlos Franco, 22, Zacarias Torres, 29, and Manuel Carlos Luna, 19, were killed and two other men were seriously injured.
Glorioso pleaded guilty to three counts of manslaughter Feb. 2 in an agreement with prosecutors that he would receive three 15-year sentences to run concurrently.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge David Talamante began Wednesday’s sentencing hearing by saying he was tempted to reject the deal because of the proposed sentence.
The deal was negotiated because of issues with the case, including less-than-credible witnesses and problems with the physical evidence, said deputy county attorney Michael Gingold.
Prosecutors would have had a difficult time proving Glorioso was impaired at the time of the collision because he wasn’t found until nearly eight hours afterward, Gingold said.
Blood tests showed he had both alcohol and Ecstasy in his system, but people saw him drinking after the crash.
An accident reconstructionist also would have testified Glorioso was going the speed limit, Gingold said.
“If we were to go to trial, a jury could acquit the defendant,” Gingold said.
Talamante accepted the deal after hearing from two men who survived the crash.
Alejandro Luna said that anyone who causes such devastation should spend the rest of their lives in jail.
“I’m never going to be able to speak to these people again,” Luna sobbed. “I’m never going to see these family members again.”
