OAKLAND — A Bay Area man has been sentenced to state and federal prison for two violent attempts to evade arrests, one of which resulted in a California Highway Patrol officer jumping off of his motorcycle to avoid being rammed.
Jose Alfaro Gamero was sentenced last month to 15 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $15,709 in restitution after pleading guilty to destroying vehicles owned by the U.S. Marshals. The sentencing — handed down by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White — ends Alfaro Gamero’s dual criminal cases. He was sentenced to three years and eight months in state prison last year, after pleading no contest to resisting arrest and hit and run.
It all started in 2020, when Aflaro Gamero led CHP officers on a chase that started when police responded to a domestic violence call in Martinez. Prosecutors said in court filings that during the chase, Alfaro Gamero “drove his car directly at an officer on a motorcycle, causing the officer to dive off the motorcycle to avoid being hit by Gamero’s car” and caused an innocent bystander in another vehicle to crash.
Alfaro Gamero allegedly called his significant other and said, “I just hit an officer.”
“Babe, I think I killed a cop,” he said after the incident, according to authorities.
That led to the Dec. 15, 2021 arrest, where Alfaro Gamero allegedly crashed into two federal agents’ vehicles, then collided into a light post in Oakland, causing roughly $15,000 in damage. After being handcuffed and placed in the back of a law enforcement vehicle, he “kicked the doors and windows and told an officer who approached him that he was going to spit in his face if he did not back away,” prosecutors said in court filings.
Both federal prosecutors and Alfaro Gamero’s lawyers agreed to a 10-month sentence for the 2021 incident. Prosecutors said that they agreed to the sentence due to Alfaro Gamero’s “apparent mental health issues” and noting that he has solid family support. But on the day of sentencing, Judge White declined to follow the joint recommendation and increased the prison term to 15 months, court records show.
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Source: www.mercurynews.com