Sioux City Man Who Discharged a Firearm While Carjacking a Family Sent to Federal Prison

A man, who assaulted his girlfriend and during the assault pointed a gun at her face and threatened to kill her, was sentenced June 16, 2015, to 13 years in federal prison.

Angel Gomez, age 23, from Sioux City, received the prison term after a February 2, 2015, guilty plea to discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

At his plea hearing and sentencing, the United States produced evidence showing on August 23, 2014, Angel Gomez possessed, brandished and fired a warning shot from the handgun in furtherance of a carjacking.  The victims of his carjacking were a family, including a child, who was visiting the War Eagle Monument in Sioux City, Iowa.  The evidence also revealed Gomez undertook the carjacking as part of another criminal plot.     

At the time of the carjacking he had already physically assaulted, threatened, and abducted his paramour when she attempted to end her intimate relationship with him.  Gomez even fired a warning shot from the handgun during the abduction to overcome her refusal to get into his car and to scare off another person attempting to aid her.  The possession of the firearm in furtherance of the carjacking was part of Gomez’s plan to escape with her girlfriend.

Gomez was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett.  Gomez was sentenced to 156 months’ imprisonment.  A special assessment of $100 was imposed, and he was ordered to make $165 in restitution to one of the crime victims.  He must also serve a 5-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.

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

The case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a cooperative local, state, and federal program aimed at the enhanced prosecution of gun crimes.  The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Sioux City Police Department, the Iowa Department of Transportation, and the Woodbury County Attorney’s Office.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Forde Fairchild.

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.  The case file number is 14-4085.

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