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Jurors began deliberating late Friday morning in the trial of Jeremy Rocha, the Commerce City man who shot and killed another driver on Interstate 70 when that driver attempted to pass Rocha as he was street-racing with others on the highway nearly two years ago.
Rocha, 22, is charged with first-degree murder in the killing of 37-year-old John Jaros on June 18, 2022. Rocha shot Jaros around 5:35 p.m. that day as Jaros drove on the interstate with his wife and three children just west of Exit 288, near the intersection with East Colfax Avenue, in Aurora.
If convicted of first-degree murder, Rocha faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
Investigators said Rocha and three other drivers were blocking traffic on I-70 so that Rocha could race his Mustang — which he had bought earlier that day — against one of the other drivers. Jaros attempted to pass the street racers by driving on the left shoulder.
But as he passed, Rocha fired nine shots into the truck, killing Jaros, who was the assistant fire chief of the Glen Haven Area Volunteer Fire Department near Estes Park.
Jaros’ wife and children were not hurt. Rocha is also charged with four counts of attempted murder.
Rocha took the stand Thursday and testified that he fired in self-defense. He claimed Jaros, who was driving a large white pickup truck, came speeding up behind the group of street racers and “rammed” his pickup truck into another racer. Rocha said Jaros then started to “chase” him down, with both vehicles driving at close to 90 mph.
“He pulls up alongside of me. And the first thing I see is him, his left hand on the steering wheel driving, and his right hand has a gun in his hand, pointed at me,” Rocha testified. “At that moment I am in fear for my life. …I think I’m going to die at this point in time.”
Rocha testified that he pulled his own gun out of the Mustang’s center console and fired nine shots as he braked.
“I take out my gun as fast as I can, and I’m starting to shoot,” he said on the stand, repeatedly saying that the encounter happened in seconds and that he did not have time to think. He said he believed Jaros was alone in the truck, and did not see Jaros’ wife, who was in the front passenger seat.
Investigators found a gun “buried in the center console” of Jaros’ truck, 17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason said during closing arguments Friday. Jaros never took that gun out of the console, Mason said, calling the defense team’s suggestion that Jaros’ wife hid the gun in the console moments after her husband was killed a “ridiculous assertation.”
Rocha lied about Jaros pointing a gun at him, Mason told jurors.
“That description was excellent — and totally made-up,” Mason told jurors. “Because if he had ever seen Johnathan Jaros with that kind of detail, he couldn’t have missed the passenger who was sitting right next to him.”
When cross-examined by Mason, Rocha admitted that he was about a half car-length behind the truck when he started shooting — that is, about even with the truck’s rear passenger doors — and agreed he was even farther behind the vehicle when he fired the final four shots, one of which was fatal.
“How are you acting in self-defense if you are firing four rounds into the back of a vehicle?” Mason said.
He suggested Rocha was angry that Jaros had interrupted their street race and decided to “unload his clip.” Rocha denied being angry and said he was scared.
“So this was all John Jaros’ fault?” Mason asked Rocha. “The fact that he was shot and killed on I-70 was entirely his fault?”
“Correct,” Rocha replied.
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