A Burbank man who shot two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies during a pursuit, then fired at nine more during a SWAT standoff in Bellflower, received a sentence of more than two centuries in state prison on Thursday, officials said.
A Norwalk jury convicted Juan Manuel Martinez, 42, in June of six counts of attempted murder, five counts of assault on a peace officer with a handgun and one count each of false imprisonment of a hostage, dissuading a witness by force or threat and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a written statement.
At his sentencing Thursday, a Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge ordered Martinez to spend 221 years to life behind bars, prosecutors said.
The violence began on the night of June 23, 2016.
He shot and wounded a motorcycle deputy who tried to pull him over after Martinez was seen driving erratically through a DUI checkpoint on Lakewood Boulevard, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials said.
Martinez then continued fleeing in his car before shooting and injuring a second deputy once cornered in a cul-de-sac, investigators said. He also shot at, but missed, other deputies.
He then holed-up inside a converted garage for eight hours before a SWAT team used tear gas to flush him out.
