Two Denver teenagers receive the Law Tigers $10,000 Hit and Run Reward for helping catch a drunken driver in a fatal hit-and-run

Law Tigers $10,000 Hit and Run Reward
Steven Sanchez, left, and Jason Perez share a laugh before being honored with the Law Tigers Hit & Run Reward at Freedom Harley-Davidson in Lakewood, CO, Wednesday, December 14, 2011. (Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post) Read more: Two Denver teenagers get $10,000 for helping catch a drunken driver in a fatal hit-and-run.

Two Teens help stop a Drunk driver after Hit-and-run

In July 2010, two Denver teenagers watched a drunken driver speed through a stop light and slam into a motorcycle carrying Jon Brand and his fiance Debbie Pyatock.

This morning, Steven Sanchez and Jason Perez Jr. were awarded the $10,000 Law Tigers Reward for their help in apprehending the driver of the car that killed Brand, 59, and seriously injured Pyatock.

On July 16, 2010, friends Sanchez and Perez, both 18, followed the car after it sped away from the intersection of Broadway and 70th Avenue. When the driver and the passenger bolted from the car at a dead end, the teenagers ran after them.

They stopped the passenger, and their actions helped officers arrest the driver, Efrain Villegas, early the next morning.

Tom Metier, of the Metier Law Firm, presented Sanchez and Perez with two $5,000 checks at the Freedom Harley Davidson dealership in Lakewood.
“These two saw a terrible event and they decided that they would live up to what was in their hearts, which was to chase this man down,” Metier said.
In April, Villegas pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide while driving under the influence of alcohol, according to state court records. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Pyatock nominated Sanchez and Perez for the reward.

“Now I’m not out there worrying about who he (Villegas) is going to kill next,” Pyatock said.

Read more: Two Denver teenagers get $10,000 for helping catch a drunken driver in a fatal hit-and-run – The Denver Post https://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_19546375?source=rss#ixzz1iPqOaE1n
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