DA: Teen was high when he hit, killed student

A teenager has been sentenced to two years in Youth Corrections for hitting and killing a high school student while high.

Chad Britton, 16, was standing next to a parked car near Broomfield High School when he was hit in 2014. He died from his injuries.

The district attorney's office said the driver, Brandon Cullip, who was 17-years-old at the time, had been smoking marijuana and had been warned by friends in his car that he was too high to drive when he hit Britton.

Cullip was in a juvenile diversion program on another offense at the time Britton was killed, according to the 17th Judicial District Attorney's Office.

Cullip pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and reckless driving.

"The real reason this happened is that you were showing off for your friends and you were high, doing all the things the law told you not to and Chad Britton lost his life,” Broomfield County District Judge Edward Moss said.

Prosecutors said family, friends and students from Broomfield High School packed the courtroom for the sentencing hearing.

"I have a hole in my heart that will never be mended," Chad Britton’s father, Lonnie Britton told the judge at the hearing. “Some days the grief and sadness is so overwhelming I have to leave work or don’t feel I can even get out of bed or live for that matter.”