A Wheat Ridge driver is headed to state prison after a high-speed crash on Kipling Street killed a well-known local business owner and seriously injured another man, capping an investigation that started with reports of erratic driving and ended in a deadly collision at West 44th Avenue.
According to a post by the Wheat Ridge Police Department, 54-year-old John David Bormolini pleaded guilty in December 2025 to reckless vehicular homicide and vehicular assault and was sentenced on Feb. 27 to six years in the Colorado Department of Corrections. Police identified the man who died as Nate Oettinger, the owner of Auto Weave Upholstery, and said passenger Dennis Dillman suffered multiple fractures to his spine, nerve damage, head lacerations and a brain bleed and is still in physical therapy.
Investigators say the crash unfolded just after 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 23, 2024, when Bormolini’s black Toyota Tundra slammed into a red Ram 1500 that was stopped in the turn lane at West 44th Avenue and Kipling Street. The driver of the Ram was pronounced dead at the scene, and a passenger was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries. Surveillance video and data from the vehicles showed that the Tundra was moving at least 78 mph in a 40 mph zone and had been weaving through traffic in the minutes before impact, according to Denver7…