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Valentin Arias Jimenez pleaded no contest Wednesday to two felony hit-and-run with injury charges and one felony car theft charge related to two Menlo Park cases, according to the district attorney’s office.
A San Mateo County Superior Court judge sentenced Mr. Jimenez to three years and eight months in state prison with no credit for time served. He also must pay $420 in fines and restitution to be determined later.
The 29-year-old East Palo Alto resident was arrested Nov. 1, 2012, after reportedly ramming a stolen car into a police vehicle, then hiding inside a Madera Avenue home’s garage before he was arrested.
Police discovered the suspect chugging stolen VitaSoy milk beverages as he hid in the garage, according to the district attorney’s office. The homeowner said there had been six drinks in storage; after the impromptu visit, there were three.
During the course of the investigation, Menlo Park police discovered that on Oct. 28, 2012, Mr. Jimenez had crashed his Mercedes into a bicyclist, then drove off. A witness had jotted down his license plate number.
The district attorney’s office said he has eight prior felony convictions, which included car theft.
Eight Felonies in 11 years as an adult. Tell me why three strikes is bad? Now he gets free room and board?
@ Morris – Exactly! And what they fail to mention in the article is that he is an illigal immigrant… Why hasn’t he been deported??
Morris wrote:
> Tell me why three strikes is bad? Now he gets free room and board?
Seriously? You want to put away every meth head and car thief who
get three felonies for 25 years?
Oky doky. That’s $47,421 annual cost in CA (Vera Institute) or $1,185,525 in today (actually 2010) dollars.
Good thinking. Just you please pay for it.
Perplexed –
What is the cost of the damage (dollars, fear, injuries, etc.) this criminal inflicts on our community?
I’d rather see my tax money go to keep these criminals behind bars than to a very expensive train that runs between Fresno and Bakersfield.
The most essential job of government is to keep citizens safe.
> What is the cost of the damage (dollars, fear, injuries, etc.) this criminal inflicts on our community?
I don’t disagree that the guy is clearly a tool and a menace to public safety. From what I can tell from a quick web search he’s stolen a couple of cars (that we know of) and this was his second hit and run. The first was a cop car during a pursuit and the second was a bicyclist who thankfully suffered “only” bruises and scrapes. Purportedly there was also an allegation of meth use w/o intent to distribute.
Tossing him in the big house for close to 4 years then deporting him seems eminently more reasonable to me then paying for 25 years of incarceration.
Saying you’re willing to support incarceration for 25 years is terrific rhetoric but there are convicted rapists and murderers walking around with only a fraction of that time. In general, I would much rather see those convicted of aggravated assault using limited detention space then car thieves and all the more so for drug users (meth can be prosecuted as a felony).
And tossing in a red herring argument about high speed rail is just that — a red herring. I don’t support high speed rail either but both of us know that the sources of the dollars there would never be revenues that could be designated for operating prisons.
The question is, do you want to raise taxes or take money most probably from education to operate more prisons so we can lock up every two bit thief with some felonies on their rap sheet for a third of their lives. Respectfully, I don’t think that is commonsensical.