Published Friday December 4, 2009

Prison for driver who killed girl
By Todd Cooper


Eleazar Rangel-Ochoa shouldn't have been driving.

Four-year-old Josie Bluhm shouldn't be dead.

Those two facts are undeniable – and the tragic consequences of those facts were undeniably evident in a Douglas County courtroom Friday.

A solemn Douglas County District Judge J Russell Derr sentenced Rangel-Ochoa to 32 months to six years years in prison – the maximum sentence for misdemeanor motor-vehicle homicide and for felony driving while he was suspended.

Rangel-Ochoa, 27, ran a red light about 7:30 a.m. May 12 – crashing a truck into a van driven by Jayme Bluhm and carrying the Bluhms' three children.

Josie's father, Kyle, and mother, Jayme, tearfully talked about their bubbly daughter. With her blonde-hair and a button nose, their middle child had an infectious personality.

Jayme Bluhm had been headed to day care to drop off her children, then ages 5, 4 and 1. The collision ejected Josie, 4, and caused her death.

Josie's then-5-year-old brother and best friend, Cayden, suffered six broken bones in the crash.

Rangel-Ochoa, an illegal immigrant, had lost his license for 15 years after his third drunken-driving conviction in 2003.

He wasn't drunk on May 12 – hence the misdemeanor motor-vehicle homicide charge.


The case sparked concern about why Rangel-Ochoa hadn't been deported after his 2003 conviction. His previous attorney has said that immigration officials now are more stringent and that Rangel-Ochoa wouldn't be treated with such leniency today. He likely will face deportation after he serves his sentence.

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