A man convicted of a 2018 killing in Allentown will serve up to 20 years in state prison.
Anderson Jorge Cruz, 28, was convicted by a jury in December 2025 for the killing of his friend, 24-year-old Juan Alfredo Sanchez. Cruz was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, unreasonable belief, which is a first-degree felony.
Lehigh County Judge Robert L. Steinberg on Wednesday gave Cruz the maximum sentence of 10-20 years in state prison, according to a news release from District Attorney Gavin Holihan.
Cruz killed Sanchez on April 26, 2018, in the 300 block of Linden Street.
According to authorities’ investigation, Cruz and Sanchez were in a car together, and got into both a verbal and physical argument. During the argument, Cruz pulled a handgun from below the seat of his vehicle and shot Sanchez twice before driving away at high speed.
According to authorities, officers found Sanchez in the street suffering from two gunshot wounds to his torso. Sanchez underwent emergency surgery, but died from his injuries. His death was ruled a homicide by the Lehigh County coroner.
Cruz did not call police or EMS after the shooting. Instead, he went to get his hair cut, authorities said.
Authorities issued a warrant for Cruz the day after the killing, but he gave away the gun he used to shoot Sanchez, sold his car and fled to Massachusetts.
Cruz committed a second homicide two months after arriving in Massachusetts, and in 2019 was arrested by federal authorities in a heroin and fentanyl trafficking investigation. He pleaded guilty to the drug investigation charges and homicide, and was sentenced to 70 months in prison for the drug trafficking charges.
He was returned to Pennsylvania in 2024 to be tried for Sanchez’s death.
Steinberg ordered Cruz to serve his state prison sentence consecutively to the sentence he received in Massachusetts.