Man Sentenced to Prison for Deadly Rohnert Park Crash

A man was sentenced to four years in prison today for killing one of his brothers in a crash as they tried to stop him from stealing a Chevy Tahoe in Rohnert Park in 2013, according to the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office.

Emmanuel Sanchez-Martinez, 27, was handed the sentence by Judge Shelly Averill this morning after he pleaded guilty to gross vehicular homicide in December, prosecutors said.

He was charged in connection with a series of events that ended with the death of his brother on July 28, 2013. That day, Sanchez-Martinez tried to take the Tahoe from in front of a home in the 400 block of Anson Avenue at 10:25 p.m. To try and stop him, his two brothers hopped onto each side of the truck, each with their feet on the side running boards and holding onto the roof rack. Their cousins drove in a car behind them, trying to get Sanchez-Martinez to stop. As he sped down Southwest Boulevard, too fast for the brothers to jump from the sides, Sanchez-Martinez lost control of the truck, hitting a curb and then a cinder block wall.

Investigators concluded he was going as fast as 71 mph in a 35 mph at the moment of impact, prosecutors said.

Edgar Sanchez-Martinez, 27, died instantly in the crash. The other brother, Jose Sanchez-Martinez, 29, landed 50 feet away in a parking lot and recovered at a hospital.

Emmanuel Sanchez-Martinez ran from the crash scene and remained at large until last August, when police received an anonymous tip that he was at a Burger King restaurant in downtown Sebastopol. He had changed his appearance, gaining weight, growing a beard, and putting his hair in cornrows. He had been carrying a Mexican ID card with a false name and apparently had stayed undetected in Sonoma County since the crash, according to police.

Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch said the family lost two brothers that day. “What is particularly tragic about this incident is how this family has been doubly victimized by the defendant’s choice to drive in a reckless and life-endangering fashion,” she said in a statement. “The defendant will be taken from his family and placed in custody for a period of time, but the loss of his brother is permanent.”

--Bay City News