Background: The scene of the crash in Aurora, Colorado, in July 2025 (KUSA/YouTube). Inset: Olvin Lidenis Carcamo-Meza (Aurora Police Department).
A teenager in Colorado has admitted fault in a fatal car crash where authorities say he ran a red light going more than 120 mph in a 40 mph zone.
Olvin Lidenis Carcamo-Meza, 19, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree assault with violent crime enhancements, The Denver Post reported. The defendant previously faced two charges of vehicular homicide.
The victims were identified by Denver Fox affiliate KDVR as 37-year-old Maira Zapata Ramirez and her 16-year-old daughter.
On July 20, 2025, at about 2:45 a.m., Carcamo-Meza was driving in the area of South Airport Boulevard and East Alameda Avenue in Aurora, Colorado, a city just east of Denver. Zapata Ramirez and her daughter were reportedly heading home at the end of an early morning shift delivering newspapers.
Carcamo-Meza was driving a black Audi sedan on South Airport Boulevard “when he failed to stop for a red light, striking a white Hyundai sedan occupied by the two victims that was traveling west on Alameda Avenue,” the Aurora Police Department said. Another car — a Toyota sedan — was also hit as it sat stopped in a turn lane.
Though the Toyota driver “sustained minor injuries,” the woman and girl in the Hyundai sedan were declared dead at the scene. Carcamo-Meza himself suffered “serious” but “non-life-threatening injuries” and was taken to a local hospital.
The defendant was arrested upon his release from the hospital days later.
Authorities investigated the crash and considered speed to be a likely cause, but did “not suspect drugs or alcohol” as factors.
Police said Carcamo-Meza was driving 121 mph in a 40 mph zone when he sped through the red light and hit the Hyundai, per The Post. In addition to nullifying the vehicular homicide charges, the defendant’s plea deal also reportedly dismissed a charge of child abuse causing death.
Carcamo-Meza is scheduled to be sentenced on June 1. He faces up to 40 years in prison.
