Sioux City Man Who Attacked an Occupied Home Sentenced to Federal Prison

A Sioux City, Iowa man who fired upon a home – with adults and children inside – was sentenced on December 9, 2022, to 6 years in federal prison.

Alvaro Vite, 26, from Sioux City, Iowa, received the prison term after an April 4, 2022, guilty plea to being a drug user in possession of a firearm and ammunition.  At the time, Vite possessed the firearms and ammunition he was an unlawful user of cocaine.

Evidence in the case revealed that on June 23, 2020, Vite came to Joel Perea-Duenas’s residence and said he was going to “shoot up” the residence of a rival and needed a driver who could operate a “stick shift” vehicle. Perea-Duenas agreed to help, changed into dark clothing, left the residence with Vite, and joined

Esai Lopez and Alexander Laurel-Olea who were already in the car. 

Three of the four men were armed with handguns.  Laurel-Olea was in possession of a Taurus pistol, Vite had a Ruger pistol, and Lopez had a .45 caliber firearm. 

The men drove to the home of their intended victim, but seeing law enforcement in the area, abandoned the initial attack.  Later, the men decided upon a secondary target.  At approximately 11:15 pm, Vite repeatedly fired upon a Sioux City, Iowa home.  A mother, father and their five minor children were in the home.  Eight bullet holes were found in the house.   

The subsequent investigation revealed all the men knew the shooting was going to happen, knew there were people, including children, in the house, and wanted the shooting to occur in retaliation against a resident of the home and the family.  Also, during the investigation, an additional man Jonathon Sotres-De La O was found to be an associate of the shooting party and to have also illegally possessed a firearm on a different occasion.     

Vite was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand to 72 months’ imprisonment.  He was ordered to pay $38,863.42 in restitution to victims and the insurance company.   He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.

Joel Perea-Duenas was sentenced to 54 months imprisonment on November 19, 2021.  Alexander Laurel-Olea was sentenced to 24 months imprisonment on November 18, 2021.  Esai Lopez was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment on April 7, 2022.  Jonathon Sotres-De La O was sentenced to 46 months imprisonment on November 4, 2021. 

Vite is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN).  PSN is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts.  PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.

The case was investigated by the Sioux City, Iowa Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).  The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Forde Fairchild. 

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. 

The case file number is 20-4071.  Follow us on Twitter @USAO_NDIA.