Two men who robbed a U.S. Postal Service carrier in Palm Desert were sentenced to two years in state prison.
Authorities have also named them as suspects in other such holdups in Southern California, including one in Cathedral City.
Luis Alberto Gonzalez, 32, of Victorville, and Jose Estevan Chavarria Jr., 28, of Los Angeles, both pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree robbery under separate plea agreements with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. No charges were dismissed under the agreements.
During a hearing at the Larson Justice Center in Indio, Superior Court Judge Dean Benjamini accepted the admissions and imposed the stipulated sentences.
Shortly before 11 a.m. March 24, the pair confronted a postal carrier in the area of Bertain and Storke drives in Palm Desert, according to Sgt. Jeff Cryder of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department
Cryder said one of the defendants brandished what appeared to be a handgun and forced the victim, whose name was not released, to hand over money and other belongings. It was unclear whether any packages or envelopes were taken.
The victim complied, and the two men fled, eluding patrol deputies who arrived minutes later in response to the mail carrier’s 911 call, according to the sergeant.
“During the ensuing investigation, it was determined that several additional robberies and attempted robberies of U.S. Postal Service carriers had occurred in … several cities in Los Angeles County,” he said.
Working with the USPS’ Inspection Service and the District Attorney’s Office, investigators turned up leads pointing to Chavarria and Gonzalez as the culprits, Cryder said.
He said the men were located by Burbank Police Department officers on North Third Street in that San Fernando Valley city and taken into custody without incident on March 28. Neither defendant had documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.
The two also were named suspects in a March 22 robbery of a mail carrier in Cathedral City. About 10 a.m. that day, a man approached a mail carrier in the 30-400 block of Avenida Los Ninos as he was driving his postal truck. Police reported the man brandished a pistol grip of a handgun at the carrier and then demanded he give him his keys.
The carrier removed the keys from the ignition and gave them to the man, who then fled in a black Genesis SUV. The carrier who was attacked was not named, but was described as a 53-year-old residing in Rancho Mirage.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Men who robbed Palm Desert postal carrier sent to state prison
Reporting by City News Service / Palm Springs Desert Sun
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