A sergeant with the Army National Guard in El Cajon was sentenced Dec. 5 to one year in federal prison for selling weapons to an undercover agent while another member was sentenced to 167 days in jail.
Sgt. Andrew Reyes, 34, of La Mesa, remains free on $30,000 bond and will surrender by Jan. 25, 2017, to begin his one-year term. Jaime Casillas, 23, of El Cajon, was placed on three years probation by U.S. District Court Judge M. James Lorenz.
A sergeant with the Army National Guard in El Cajon was sentenced Dec. 5 to one year in federal prison for selling weapons to an undercover agent while another member was sentenced to 167 days in jail.
Sgt. Andrew Reyes, 34, of La Mesa, remains free on $30,000 bond and will surrender by Jan. 25, 2017, to begin his one-year term. Jaime Casillas, 23, of El Cajon, was placed on three years probation by U.S. District Court Judge M. James Lorenz.
Casillas’s case was a little different because he sold two weapons as a favor for his wife’s uncle for $800 in 2014 and gave the money to the uncle without benefitting from it, according to his attorney Devin Burnstein.
Casillas didn’t know he was selling the weapons to an undercover agent who requested more firearms and he turned over the information to Reyes, his sergeant at the El Cajon facility. Casillas has already served the 167 days and both he and Reyes pleaded guilty to selling firearms without a license.
Reyes also pleaded guilty to three counts of unlicensed transportation of firearms when he purchased guns in Texas and crossed into California to sell them to the undercover agent in January 2015. Before he is released he will have to live in a residential re-entry program for six months, according to court records.
Reyes’s attorney, Victor Torres, asked for 12 months of home detention. He said Reyes had been deployed twice to Afghanistan and Iraq when he was in the Marine Corps. He joined the Texas National Guard in 2008 and transferred to the California National Guard in 2010.
Reyes’s only prior offense was driving under the influence of alcohol. Casillas, who was in the National Guard for four years, had no prior record. The pair was also accused of selling other equipment and ammunition, but those charges were dismissed.
The undercover agent from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms told both men he was a member of a Mexican drug cartel, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Reyes sold an AK-47 rifle, three AR-15 rifles and four high-capacity magazines. Casillas sold a .40-caliber pistol and an AR-15 rifle.
Both men could have been sentenced to a maximum five years in federal prison.
Trial date set for Spring Valley killing
An April 26, 2017, trial date was set last week for a man accused of killing an acquaintance in Spring Valley in 2007.
After a two and a half-day preliminary hearing, Marlin Lattereal Royal, 42, was ordered to stand trial for murder in the May 7, 2007, shotgun slaying of Idris “Rashad” Jones, 29, who was found lying on the side of the road in the 2300 block of Millar Ranch Road.
The sheriff’s homicide cold case team investigated the shooting and Royal was charged with murder in June. Royal is already serving a 40-year prison term for robbery and kidnapping in an unrelated case from Los Angeles County.
El Cajon Superior Court Judge Patricia Cookson heard testimony from deputies and many witnesses. Royal pleaded not guilty at the end of the hearing and he remains in the George Bailey Detention Facility.
Salazar sentenced to one year for burglary
Alexis Salazar, 19, has been sentenced to a year in jail after pleading guilty to residential burglary of apartments in El Cajon which were being fumigated at the time.
Salazar was ordered to pay $6,700 in restitution to victims on terms of three years probation by El Cajon Superior Court Judge John Thompson, who suspended a four-year state prison term.
His projected release date is May 6, 2017, according to the sheriff’s department. El Cajon Police responded to an 8:40 a.m. call on Oct. 15, 2015, after someone reported two people going through a hole in a fumigation tarp at an apartment complex in the 1000 block of South Mollison Avenue.
Police discovered several apartments were burglarized. Computers, jewelry and other items were taken. Three other burglary and vandalism charges were dropped against Salazar, who signed a waiver allowing him to pay restitution to residents from the dismissed counts.
Police arrested Salazar and a juvenile. Police warned the public that people could get seriously ill or die from exposure to harmful chemicals in fumigation tents.
