ALLENTOWN, Pa. – A jury convicted a man accused in a 2018 killing in Allentown.
Anderson Jorge Cruz, 27, no known address, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter-unreasonable belief, a first-degree felony, for the killing of 24-year-old Juan Alfredo Sanchez, according to a news release from the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office.
Jorge Cruz was convicted Wednesday after a jury trial that began on Monday before Judge Robert L. Steinberg.
Cruz faces a possible maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced March 11, 2026, the DA’s office said in the news release.
According to the news release, Sanchez was shot and killed April 26, 2018 in the 300 block of Linden Street. Officers arrived to find the victim in the street suffering from two gunshot wounds to the torso, the DA’s office said.
Although Alfredo Sanchez underwent emergency surgery, he died from his injuries, and his death was ruled a homicide by the Lehigh County Coroner.
The investigation revealed both Jorge Cruz and the victim were in a car together and got into a verbal argument that escalated into a physical fight, according to the news release. During the fight, Cruz pulled out a handgun from under the seat of that vehicle and shot Sanchez twice before driving away at a high rate of speed, according to the news release.
The DA’s office said authorities issued a warrant for Cruz the day after the killing happened, but he gave away the weapon used in the killing, sold his car, and fled to Massachusetts.
Two months after his arrival in Massachusetts, he committed a separate homicide, the DA’s office said.
The DA’s office said federal authorities arrested Cruz in a heroin and fentanyl trafficking investigation in 2019.
He pleaded guilty in both the federal drug investigation and the Massachusetts homicide and was eventually returned to Pennsylvania in 2024 for the homicide case, according to the news release.