Boulder County, Colo. - The National Association of Prosecutor Coordinators has recognized Deputy District Attorney Erica Jones with the 2025 National Traffic Safety Prosecutor of the Year Award.

Since 2024, Erica has been at the forefront of traffic safety prosecutions for this DA’s Office in a variety of ways. Erica runs a full felony docket and has tried several jury cases throughout the year. While managing this workload, Erica volunteered for the additional responsibility of leading our innovative DA Vehicular Response Unit. As a member of this unit, Erica is available at all hours of the day and night to take calls from law enforcement agencies when a crash occurs. She provides advice on the investigation and frequently responds to the scene of any fatal crash likely to result in criminal charges. On scene, Erica advises on the collection of evidence, legality of blood and breath sample collection, helpful scene documentation, and assists with warrants for cell phones and vehicle searches.

Erica’s dedication and commitment to vehicular fatality cases has significantly improved the quality of investigations, timeliness to filing of cases, strength of cases, and the experience of victim families during exceptionally difficult times of loss.

This year, one of Erica’s most impactful cases was People v. Earl Garczynski. In this case, the defendant intentionally pursued two occupants at speeds over 100 mph and caused them to crash into another car, killing them almost instantly and seriously injuring the other driver. Erica was involved in this case from the start.

During the seven-day trial, Erica fought hard in court while simultaneously working with the families of both victims to ensure they could be involved in and heard throughout the process. Ultimately, through a skillful presentation of the evidence, Erica proved to a jury of community members that the Defendant’s conduct was far worse than a reckless Vehicular Homicide and secured First Degree Murder convictions for each deceased victim and a First Degree Assault conviction for the injured victim. The defendant received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

District Attorney Michael Dougherty stated, “This award is given to one prosecutor in the country. We are very pleased that the organization chose Erica Jones and Colorado for this year’s award. Erica deserves it; she is an outstanding and hardworking prosecutor who gives her very best to some of our most difficult and painful cases. It is a wonderful and well-deserved honor. Our entire office is thrilled for Erica to be recognized with this national award.”