Earl James Garczynski was found guilty of causing a four-car crash in May 2023, which caused the death of two individuals in one of the vehicles. He was sentenced on February 11 to two consecutive life sentences without parole for first-degree murder followed by a 32-year sentence for first-degree assault.
Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said that “through his deliberate and ruthless actions, [Garczynski] killed two people and seriously injured a third individual. The result of the defendant’s road rage was devastation for the victims’ families…. I hope these guilty verdicts bring some measure of justice.”
Daniel Wright, the driver of the Camaro in the accident, and his passenger James Jacobson were both killed. Garczynski was driving a Dodge Ram 1500 and collided with the Camaro, causing the car to move across the median into oncoming traffic. The accident was caused when Garczynski attempted to confront Wright in the median, but Wright left and began driving southbound on the highway. Garczynski followed Wright at a speed of 100 miles per hour. He tailgated, brake-checked, and hit the Camaro as part of the road rage incident, according to witnesses.
After the Camaro went into northbound traffic, it was struck by a Toyota Tundra and Garczynski drove off. Jeffrey Laguna, the driver of the Tundra, experienced serious bodily injury including a right calcaneus fracture in his right foot. Garczynski initially denied being involved in the accident and reportedly changed his story several times before admitting to confronting Wright in the highway median.
The press release said a friend of Garczynski was talking to him on the phone at the time of the incident. The friend heard Garczynski say “that mother [expletive] won’t do that again.”
According to the Boulder County coroner investigation, Wright and Jacobson both had amphetamine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl in their blood. It was determined that the cause of death was “multiple blunt force injuries consistent with a motor vehicle crash.”
