A 24-year-old Santa Ana man was sentenced Friday to three years in federal prison for a spree of stick-ups at eateries in Orange County this year.<\/p>\n
Freddie Alexander Lopez, who pleaded guilty in July to a count of interference with commerce by robbery, was also ordered by U.S. District Judge John W. Holcomb to serve three years of supervised release when he finishes his prison term.<\/p>\n
Holcomb said the sentencing guidelines, which recommended up to 57 months, was too high. He added that he appreciated that federal prosecutors recommended 46 months, but said, \u201cThat seems a little too harsh.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holcomb said he appreciated that Lopez said he wasn\u2019t in his right mind when he robbed or attempted to rob the stores because of a substance abuse problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think three years is about right,\u201d Holcomb said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is my hope and expectation that when you finish your custodial time you find\u201d an occupation to pursue, the judge told the defendant.<\/p>\n
Lopez has said he wants to pursue a career in the \u201cculinary arts\u201d or as a \u201cmedical assistant,\u201d Holcomb noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cEither one would be wonderful,\u201d the judge said. \u201cAnd I hope you get a chance to address your substance abuse issues. My hope and expectation is you will emerge from this process a better person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holcomb recommended a prison where Lopez could receive treatment for his addiction issues.<\/p>\n
A knife-wielding Lopez robbed a Subway restaurant in Santa Ana on Jan. 27. Three days later, he attempted to rob another Subway in Fountain Valley with a knife, and later that day, he robbed a Yum Yum Donuts store in Santa Ana, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n
Lopez also attempted to rob a Subway in Anaheim with a fake gun, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
Lopez\u2019s attorney, Adithya Mani, said in court papers that his client struggled after his parents separated when he was 5 years old. He rarely saw his father after that and was bullied by step-siblings, his attorney said.<\/p>\n
The defendant\u2019s stepfather was a pastor, but he did not appear to \u201c`practice the sermons he preached at church\u201d and was cruel to his wife in front of her son, the attorney said.<\/p>\n
Lopez did well academically in school but when he started using marijuana, he began failing, Mani said.<\/p>\n
His mother transferred him to Legacy Preparatory Academy in Santa Ana and he rebounded and graduated in May 2020, the attorney said.<\/p>\n
Like most everyone else, his college courses began online during the pandemic and he soon dropped out of Cal State Dominguez Hills to start working, Mani said.<\/p>\n
The defendant\u2019s grandmother died suddenly as she went to check on her mother\u2019s health in Mexico, which \u201cdevastated\u201d Lopez, his attorney said.<\/p>\n
Lopez quit his job and fell into a cocaine addiction, but when he had a panic attack at work, he tried to quit and it led to \u201csevere withdrawals\u201d and \u201ccontributed to his poor decision-making and, most egregiously,\u201d the crime spree, his attorney said.<\/p>\n
In a letter to the judge, Lopez said he also grew up with an ailing sister who struggled with an autoimmune disease. He also said that although he had been afflicted with painful memories in his youth, he realized he must move on.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat separates us lies in the choices we make,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWe both have the choice to learn and grow, or the choice to ignore and regress, the choice to love and live, or the choice to hate and resent, the choice to help or the choice to hurt. I have made choices that brought me to Santa Ana Jail. This place has forced me to come to terms with those choices, as well as the impact they\u2019ve had on my family, community and most importantly, the victims.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 24-year-old Santa Ana man was sentenced Friday to three years in federal prison for a spree of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,7028,47389,2901,2480,175632,688],"class_list":["post-484073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-federal","tag-gets","tag-prison","tag-robbery","tag-spree","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}