South bay man gets 33 years for three violent attacks
For release on April 2, 2021
CONTACT:
Vishal Bathija
Supervising Deputy District Attorney
South County Office
(408) 201-0538
South bay man gets 33 years for three violent attacks
A San Martin man was sentenced to 33 years and four months in prison this week after being convicted of three separate violent armed attacks on innocent people over two years.
Alfonso Navarro, 37, fired a gun at two motorists during a road rage incident, fired a gun at a Home Depot security guard after shoplifting, and attacked with a hatchet a car carrying a mother and her three children.
Navarro was convicted by a jury last month of 13 counts ranging from assault with a deadly weapon to possession of a weapon by a felon. The 2018 road rage incident was solved after DA criminalists matched bullet casings at the 2018 incident to a weapon found on the defendant the following year.
District Attorney Jeff Rosen said: “The defendant went on a crime spree that terrorized innocent people in our community who had the misfortune of randomly encountering him. The District Attorney’s Office is thankful for the collaborative work by the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s office, the California Highway Patrol, the Gilroy Police Department, and the Santa Clara County Crime lab to piece the evidence together and ensure this dangerous offender is held accountable for victimizing so many.”
On July 12, 2018, during an argument after a minor accident, the driver of a white truck pulled out a handgun and fired at least three rounds toward two men. Both ran for cover and the driver of the white truck took off. California Highway Patrol investigators recovered two shell casings from the scene and investigated the case, but it was eventually closed due to a lack of leads.
In January 2019, a customer service lead at the Home Depot store in Gilroy saw the defendant walk out of the store with a spool of cooper wire. Suspecting that the defendant stole the merchandise, the victim followed him outside and asked him if he had a receipt. The defendant pulled out a gun from his waistband and fired a shot into the ground. He then ran to his car and fled. That same month, a woman and her three young daughters were in San Martin visiting her uncle who lived near the defendant’s parents. As she was making her way down the driveway toward her uncle’s house, she saw the defendant coming toward her carrying an axe. After striking her car and terrifying her family, the defendant sped off in his car. Both Gilroy police and the Sheriff’s Office deputies pursued until he crashed his car into a fence. Inside the car, deputies found a compound hunting bow, two axes, ammunition, and a revolver.
In November 2019, the old road rage case was re-opened when one of the guns found on the defendant during an arrest by Sheriff’s deputies on August 20, 2018 was examined by the District Attorney Crime Laboratory. The lab determined there was a match between that firearm and the shell casings recovered by CHP.
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