http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/2006 ... /105040112

Sentencing postponed for man in vehicular homicide



Rebecca Waddingham, (Bio) rwaddingham@greeleytribune.com
May 4, 2006

A suspected illegal immigrant was supposed to be sentenced Wednesday for causing a fatal crash last year. But nobody knows who he is.

He was arrested under the name of Damian Campos, 38, but, according to Colorado driver's license records, that Damian Campos is dead.

His name might also be David Angon, Damian Hernandez-Angon, or several other combinations.

A pre-sentence investigation by the Weld County Probation Department found he's used at least five names, Social Security numbers and birthdates.

Witnesses to the crash told police a man named David Angon was the driver, and the Evans residence where Campos was arrested is listed under David Angon, according to an arrest affidavit. But the affidavit states the police later learned his real name is Damian Campos.

Weld District Judge James Hartmann said he couldn't sentence the person standing in front of him because he had no idea who he really is.

Campos, which is the name everyone is using to refer to him, has at least seven other drinking and driving violations on his record, all under various names. The Weld District Attorney's Office wanted to use those records to convince Hartmann that Campos should receive a harsher sentence.

Campos' attorney, deputy state public defender Stephanie Stout, said she wouldn't agree to prosecutors using those other violations because nobody knows who really committed them. She wants a more thorough investigation.

Hartmann ordered Campos to be fingerprinted, so investigators can compare his fingerprints with ones relating to the various other incidents.

"I don't even know if Damian Campos is this person," Hartmann said. "The (prosecutors) have the right to prove who this person is."

Campos is being held without bond in the Weld County Jail, waiting for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to take over his case.

A jury convicted Campos in March of vehicular homicide during the act of reckless driving and of leaving the scene of an accident involving a death.

The jury could not decide whether he should be convicted of driving under the influence, or of causing the fatal rollover crash because he was drunk, which would have been a stronger conviction.

He fled after the crash, which happened May 8, 2005, at the intersection of 1st Avenue and U.S. 34, just before the overpass. Campos was driving despite the fact that his license had been revoked for drinking and driving, police said.

Campos' softball teammate, Marcos Martinez, 35, died at the scene. The men in the car were headed home after a game in Cheyenne.

What's Next:

« Damian Campos, aka David Angon, Damian Hernandez-Angon or other possible aliases, will be sentenced at 2 p.m. June 12 in Division 12 of Weld District Court.