San Martin man sentenced to 33 years for violent attacks

A 37-year-old San Martin man has been sentenced to more than 30 years in prison for a pair of shootings and an ax attack on a car carrying a woman and her three children, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office announced Friday.

Alfonso Navarro was convicted last month on 13 counts ranging from assault with a deadly weapon to possession of a deadly weapon by a felon, prosecutors said in a news release.

The most recent shooting occurred in January 2019, when an employee at a Home Depot in Gilroy saw Navarro walk out of the store with a spool of copper wire. Suspecting that Navarro had not paid for the item, the employee followed him out of the store and asked if he had a receipt.

Navarro instead pulled a gun from his waistband and fired a shot into the ground, prosecutors said.

That same month, a woman and her three children were in San Martin visiting a family member who lived near Navarro’s parents. As she was making her way down the driveway to her family member’s home, the woman saw Navarro coming toward her with an ax. Prosecutors said he hit the woman’s car with the ax and sped off in a car.

Gilroy police officers and sheriff’s deputies pursued Navarro until he crashed into a fence. Inside the car, they found a compound hunting bow, two axes, ammunition and a revolver, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said the gun matched shell casings found at the scene of an earlier shooting on July 12, 2018. On that day, Navarro got into an argument following a minor crash and fired a handgun at two men at least three times, prosecutors said. The case initially was closed for a lack of leads, but investigators reopened it after Navarro’s arrest.

Navarro was sentenced last week to a total of 33 years and four months in prison, prosecutors said.

“The defendant went on a crime spree that terrorized innocent people in our community who had the misfortune of randomly encountering him,” said District Attorney Jeff Rosen in a statement.

“The District Attorney’s Office is thankful for the collaborative work by the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, the California Highway Patrol, the Gilroy Police Department and the Santa Clara County crime lab to piece the evidence together and ensure this dangerous offender is held accountable for victimizing so many,” he said.