Posted: 1/31/2006 10:01:54 PM EDT
[#1]
I found the article. The arrest was June 30th, I'm sure the owner got their guns back by now. Felon in possession of firearm in OR is only a C Felony... doesn't say anything about the guy's criminal history so he may not have even got that much in Oregon. www.oregonlive.com/metrowest/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/metro_west_news/1138685115265760.xml&coll=7Tigard man draws 5-year sentence in gun case
Federal charges - The 23-year-old was arrested with five guns after a chase in Beaverton Tuesday, January 31, 2006 HOLLY DANKS
A federal judge on Monday sentenced a 23-year-old Tigard man to five years in prison for having an arsenal of weapons in his car when Beaverton police arrested him after a high-speed chase.
Carlos Alberto Santos received 10 times the six-month sentence he probably would have gotten if the case had been kept in Washington County Circuit Court, said Fred Weinhouse, assistant U.S. attorney. Santos, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced under Project Safe Neighborhoods, a federal program to get illegal guns off the streets.
"It sends a message to people who illegally possess firearms in Washington County," Weinhouse said. "Five years is a serious federal firearms sentence."
Weinhouse said police found five guns in Santos' Mazda when they arrested him June 30 in the Murrayhill area. They also confiscated two bags of methamphetamine and $460. The guns were valued at $10,000.
Weinhouse said four of the guns had been stolen from a car in Milwaukie a couple of weeks earlier: an M-16 assault rifle with night scope, an M1-A1 military rifle, a .45-caliber Tec-9 semiautomatic pistol and a .45-caliber Ruger revolver. Police found those in the trunk, along with a stolen smoke grenade and ballistic vest.
"We still don't know what he was up to," Weinhouse said.
Police said the fifth gun, a 9mm semiautomatic Luger handgun, was loaded and in the car's center console when Santos tried to escape after officers spotted him cutting across lanes and speeding on Southwest Scholls Ferry Road near Murray Boulevard.
Santos pulled into a parking place but sped away as police approached, nearly hitting an officer, Weinhouse said.
Santos then "traveled in the oncoming lanes of traffic" with police in pursuit, "endangering the people of Beaverton and the police," Weinhouse told the judge during Monday's sentencing in U.S. District Court in downtown Portland.
"This was a serious matter," U.S. District Judge Garr M. King responded.
Weinhouse sought a six-year, 10-month sentence, while Christopher Schatz, Santos' federal public defender, asked for less than six years.
King came down between the two, saying he wanted to hand down a sentence that was "an adequate deterrence for criminal activity" while also taking into account Santos' history.
Santos was convicted of possessing meth for sale in Napa, Calif., in 2001 and being a felon in possession of a firearm during a May 2004 shootout over drugs in Tigard.
Schatz said Santos came from a broken home. His mother was a drug addict and he has been on his own since the age of 14, he said.
Santos apologized and asked for mercy. "I have lived a hard life," he said. "I was trying to do good, and I was doing good and it slipped away from me."
King warned Santos that while five years in prison is a long time, if he gets arrested again the penalty will be much longer.
"I hope you come out of prison with a good attitude," King said. "You will have your whole life ahead of you."
Holly Danks: 503-221-4377; [email protected]
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