By Matthew Kawahara
mkawahara@sacbee.com
A Sacramento County man convicted of trying to run down a Roseville policeman with his car in 2009 was sentenced Friday to five years and four months in state prison.
Walter Carrillo, 19, was sentenced by Placer County Superior Court Judge Mark S. Curry after being convicted Jan. 26 of felony assault on a peace officer and other charges, including hit-and-run driving causing injury, according to a Placer County District Attorney's Office news release.
In addition to the prison sentence, Carrillo's driving privileges were revoked for life, according to the release.
The charges stemmed from a March 2009 incident in which Carrillo, then 17, was trying to flee from undercover officers after they closed in on him during a drug bust, the release states. Carrillo had driven his vehicle to a parking lot at Main Street and Foothills Boulevard in Roseville to make a drug deal. When police approached him, Carrillo drove between two vehicles and nearly struck Roseville police Officer Jeff Kool, who was on foot.
Carrillo also repeatedly rammed a woman's car in his attempt to escape from officers, according to a release.
"The use of a car as a deadly weapon is no less dangerous than a gun or a knife," Curry said in pronouncing Carrillo's sentence, according to the release. "It's a two-ton machine that can maim or kill."
Carrillo was prosecuted as an adult because of the seriousness of his offenses, the release states. He was also convicted of vandalism, assault on the female driver, resisting arrest with force, possession of drugs for sale and sale of drugs.
Call The Bee's Matt Kawahara, (916) 321-1015.
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