Macon – A Macon man was sentenced to 15 years in prison Tuesday for his part in a robbery that resulted in the victim needing to be rescued from the trunk of his own car.
Raul Alejandro Sanchez-Gonzalez, 29, pleaded guilty to armed robbery and kidnapping during a hearing in Bibb County Superior Court. Sanchez-Gonzalez, a Mexican citizen, will be turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after his prison sentence is complete. He will not be eligible for parole.
If the case had gone to trial, prosecutor Sandra Matson would have presented evidence showing:
A 22-year-old Macon man exchanged messages with a woman online and via text in the spring of 2017. They arranged to meet at a Romeiser Drive motel on March 13, 2017.
The man was robbed at gunpoint when he arrived. His hands were bound with a thick layer of blue painter’s tape before he was placed in the backseat of his Toyota Celica. The woman drove while a man, later identified as Sanchez-Gonzalez, sat in the passenger seat. Later, on an isolated dirt road, the victim was forced into the trunk.
Driving near the intersection of Hartley Bridge Road and School Road, a Bibb County deputy noticed that the Toyota had a broken tail light. He tried to pull the car over, but it instead led authorities on a high-speed chase that at times reached speeds in excess of 110 mph.
After turning onto Romeiser Drive and a dead-end dirt road, the driver and Sanchez-Gonzalez exited the vehicle and led deputies on a foot chase before they were apprehended.
Soon after the foot chase ended, deputies discovered the robbery victim in the trunk of the Toyota.
A case involving Sanchez-Gonzalez’s co-defendant, 21-year-old India Denise Summers, still is pending in Bibb County Superior Court.
Speaking after the plea, District Attorney David Cooke said, “Mr. Sanchez-Gonzalez did everything he could to escape justice, but the law caught up with him. I hope his 15 years in prison will be enough time for him to consider what his victim felt, locked away in a trunk uncertain of what the future held.”
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Contact: Amy Leigh Womack
478-621-6179 (office)
478-319-2529 (cell)