A Colorado driver who fled deputies, drove the wrong way down Interstate 25 near Berthoud and caused five separate collisions has been sentenced to 22 years in prison, the 8th Judicial District Attorney's Office announced. Thomas Edward Mazza was sentenced on Thursday, November 12, 2026, after pleading guilty in a case prosecutors described as one of the most dangerous episodes of fleeing police ever seen in Larimer County.
Mazza pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree assault, a class 4 felony; vehicular eluding resulting in injury, also a class 4 felony; and driving under the influence, a class 1 misdemeanor, according to the District Attorney's Office. The 22-year term will be served in the Colorado Department of Corrections.
A midday stop that turned into a wrong-way pursuit
The case began on September 15, 2025, when Larimer County Sheriff's Office deputies tried to stop a vehicle that was weaving in and out of its lane and displaying mismatched license plates, the Sheriff's Office reported. The driver, later identified as Mazza, did not stop. Instead, he accelerated and tried to evade deputies.
At approximately 12:30 p.m., in the middle of the day, Mazza drove southbound in the northbound lanes of Interstate 25, straight through an active highway construction zone near Berthoud, according to prosecutors. They say he passed more than 200 vehicles travelling toward him before the drive ended.
His driving resulted in five separate collisions, the District Attorney's Office said. A motorcyclist crashed while trying to avoid Mazza's vehicle, suffering minor injuries; the rider was taken to a hospital for treatment and later released, the Sheriff's Office reported on September 17, 2025. Deputies finally stopped Mazza's vehicle using a precision immobilization technique — a PIT maneuver — and took him into custody.
What the court heard at sentencing
At the sentencing hearing, the Larimer County sheriff's deputy who investigated the incident described the pursuit as “the most egregious example of eluding I have ever witnessed,” according to the District Attorney's Office. The remark underlines how far outside an ordinary police chase this case sat, even for an experienced traffic investigator.
The sentencing judge also characterized the case as extraordinary, emphasizing the lasting impact on the motorists who suddenly faced a vehicle coming at them in their own lanes. “The terror experienced by each of those individuals will never leave them,” the judge said, according to the District Attorney's Office.
District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin condemned Mazza's actions and stressed the danger of trying to evade law enforcement. “Mr. Mazza's conduct was extreme and showed a blatant disregard for human life,” McLaughlin said.
From the first charges to the final convictions
The offences Mazza was convicted of were not identical to the allegations first announced after his arrest. Following his arrest in September 2025, he initially faced several allegations, including five counts of attempted criminally negligent homicide, vehicular eluding and false imprisonment. Those initial charges were allegations at the time; the guilty plea that produced this week's sentence was entered on the attempted assault, eluding-with-injury and DUI counts confirmed by the District Attorney's Office on November 12, 2026.
Interstate 25 near Berthoud is a major north-south transportation corridor connecting Johnstown, Loveland and other Northern Colorado communities, carrying commuters, local traffic and heavy commercial trucks. A wrong-way vehicle in a construction zone leaves oncoming drivers — including truckers with far longer stopping distances — almost no time or space to react, which is why Colorado prosecutors and courts treat this kind of eluding so severely.
What happens next is the sentence itself: Mazza will serve the 22-year term in the Colorado Department of Corrections, according to the District Attorney's Office. Neither the District Attorney's Office nor the Sheriff's Office announced any further hearing in the case in the statements reviewed for this report, and the motorcyclist injured while avoiding his vehicle has already been treated and released.