On Tuesday, the Moreno Valley man who led police on a crazy multi-county chase in 2022 was given a 13-year jail sentence.
The 34-year-old parolee Johnny Anchondo, who was previously found guilty of car theft and attempted carjacking, entered a guilty plea to charges related to the Nov. 9, 2022, chase from Fullerton to Whittier, in which he crashed several times, stole two cars, and collided with police cars before being apprehended.
He entered a guilty plea on Tuesday to a number of charges, including one count of carjacking, one count of burglary, eight counts of assault with a weapon on a peace officer, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of theft with a prior conviction for auto theft, one count of attempted vehicle theft, three counts of vandalism, one count of leading police on a chase with reckless driving, and one count of leading police on a chase in the opposite lane of traffic. The accusations are all felonies.
Read more: Families whose automobiles were stolen are still healing after identifying the suspect in a wild cross-county pursuit
Anchondo also entered a guilty plea to three charges of hit-and-run with property damage, drug paraphernalia possession, and brandishing a firearm. Misdemeanors apply to all of those chargers.
He faced a maximum sentence of 54 years in jail if found guilty of all charges prior to entering a plea deal.
According to court documents, Anchondo accepted a plea bargain from Orange County Superior Court Judge Larry Yellin, who granted him 883 days of credit for time already served in jail following his arrest.
On Nov. 9, 2022, at around 6:45 p.m., officers from the Fullerton Police Department attempted to pull Anchondo over for a traffic infraction, which started the whole affair. Rather than pulling over, he drove police to a complex of condominiums, where he stole a man’s work truck, crashed into a police patrol car that was trying to stop him, and then drove off.
After that, he kept running in the direction of Los Angeles County, frequently reaching speeds of around 100 miles per hour until abandoning the van that had exploded tires and other damage from collisions. Then, armed with a knife, he broke into a Whittier family’s house, took the keys to their work truck, and then raced away from the police once more.
He nearly collided with vehicles from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department that attempted to block him in as he was leaving the cul-de-sac where the house was located. He kept driving until he eventually pulled into a Mobil gas station in Hacienda Heights, where he started reversing into police vehicles once more.
Anchondo pushed the truck’s gas foot down during the brief standoff, spinning the tires and filling the air with billowing smoke. Anchondo was sitting in the automobile when deputies opened fire at some point during the confrontation. He was not hurt.
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