Man who allegedly tried to shoot cop, bribe fed in drug bust gets 70 months

SAN FRANCISCO >> An East Palo Alto man whom federal prosecutors say would have likely shot a plainclothes officer if not for the safety on his pistol still being activated was sentenced Monday to 70 months in prison for cocaine trafficking.

Miguel A. Bucio Sanchez, 21, was sentenced in a Monday afternoon court hearing by U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, who said he was struggling to find a term that balanced the serious nature of the offense with Sanchez’s “horrible” upbringing, which he didn’t describe other than saying Sanchez probably had PTSD. Chhabria said Sanchez was probably “going down the path where he kills someone who gets killed himself,” when he was arrested; when it was Sanchez’s time to speak, he agreed.

“I would probably be dead right now or have an overdose” if he hadn’t been arrested on federal charges in October 2019, Sanchez said in court. He called his arrest a wake-up call and added, “The blame falls slowly on my shoulders … I can do better and I will do better, and I want to apologize to my family for all the pain I have caused them.”

Sanchez was arrested in possession of 2.2 pounds of cocaine and an ounce of methamphetamine outside of his East Palo Alto apartment, police said. According to prosecutors, he attempted to shoot the plainclothes officer who approached him after conducting surveillance — and failed to identify himself as law enforcement — but didn’t only because he was unable to manipulate the safety on the pistol. Afterwards he allegedly offered authorities between $50,000-$100,000 in bribes.

“Look I’m in deep (expletive) right now and money doesn’t mean a (expletive) thing to me, my freedom is everything … I’ll give you one hundred thousand dollars, just tell me where you want me to drop off the money and you will have it tonight … please just take my money and let me go,” Sanchez allegedly said during his arrest.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Molly Smollen, who prosecuted the case, said she wasn’t going to ask for a specific sentence for the same reason Chhabria was struggling to come up with a number. But she called the offense was “terrifying” and reminded Chhabria several times that Sanchez’s previous relatively short jail stints hadn’t deterred him from crime. Sanchez was 19 when he was arrested in this case, prosecutors said in court records.

As part of the sentence, Chhabria recommended Sanchez have access to a drug rehabilitation program in prison.

“I really think that is truly his only chance of turning things around,” he said.