Dear DU Community,

My name is James Hills and I am a fellow student at the great University of Denver. For those of you that don’t know or who don’t remember, last year on the 25th of September, I had been drinking at a party that had gotten busted up by the police.

Instead of walking home, I got into my car and drove. I ended up driving my car into the back of someone else’s at a high rate of speed. The passenger in that car was killed. I was charged with DUI–vehicular assault, a class four felony.

I was bonded out of jail by my parents and I was able to complete my sophomore year at DU. When the summer came, so did my sentencing.

On June 19, 2009, I was sentenced to seven years in the Department of Corrections (DOC).

Now for someone who has never gotten in trouble with the law before, this came as a huge shock to me, my family, and my friends.

I never thought that I would ever find myself behind bars because of one stupid decision that I made one night.

What I want all of you to do is to imagine for a minute that you are in my place. Imagine one night of drinking turning into a nightmare in a second.

Imagine your mother and father getting a call from your best friend telling them that you are in jail for drinking and driving and killing someone. Imagine how your parents would feel and how you would feel. Let me tell you from experience that it is the worst feeling in the world. I have to live every day of my life knowing that I killed someone and that someone was a wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother.

She had 10 kids and 20 grandkids. Just imagine how you would feel being responsible for her death.

So, please I ask each and every one of you to remember what I have just told you and please please do not drink and drive.

I would never want any of you to live through what I have lived through.

I also challenge each and every one of you to be that sober person at parties who takes the keys from a drunk who is trying to drive.

That is the only way to prevent what happened to me. Take the keys and never let an intoxicated person drive.

Thank you to those of you who read this and take it to heart.

-James Hills