Man gets 20 to life in fatal Strip carjacking
Vince Gonzales cried out for help before a Clark County judge Wednesday.
His life hasn’t been the same since he watched his younger brother, Jesus “Jay” Magdaleno, and his brother-in-law, Felix Brandon Cruz III, hop into the bed of a pickup truck as James Montgomery tried to steal it.
“That should have been me,” Gonzales said. “And I would gladly give my life for him to come back.”
Cruz and Magdaleno died after being thrown from the truck when Montgomery crashed.
Montgomery, now 31, was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison Wednesday in the deaths of the California highway patrolman and Cruz after a carjacking on the Strip.
Montgomery pleaded guilty in January to two counts of second-degree murder in the 2013 crash. Magdaleno was 33, Cruz 31. Montgomery was originally charged with first-degree kidnapping, robbery, grand larceny auto and DUI.
Prosecutors said Montgomery was drinking Jack Daniels and Coke before the carjacking and had a blood-alcohol level of 0.197 percent, more than twice the legal limit to drive.
“He destroyed us,” Gonzales said of Montgomery. “He devastated us.
“My wife and my kids say I’m angry all the time,” Gonzales told District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez and pointed to a row of inmates in the courtroom. “I snap at any little thing. I need help. I don’t want to be sitting over there with those guys, if I don’t get some help.”
Gonzales was with Cruz and Magdaleno as they were loading luggage into the bed of a white Ford F-150 pickup at the east valet area at the Flamingo Las Vegas on Aug. 18, 2013, Las Vegas police said. The truck was running when Montgomery got in and drove away with Cruz still in the bed, police said. Magdaleno ran after the truck, identified himself as an officer and jumped in as it slowed.
Montgomery, who had been visiting Las Vegas with his girlfriend, ran three red lights on Flamingo before crashing into an SUV near Valley View Boulevard, near the Rio, police said.
Magdaleno died at the scene. Cruz died a day later at University Medical Center.
The residents of Visalia, Calif., were in Las Vegas for Magdaleno’s bachelor party. He was to wed Jacqueline Mellow the following month.
“I will forever be the fiance,” Mellow told the judge. “I will never be the wife because of what happened. … It took away my ‘happily ever after.’ I should have been a wife and a mother right now.”
Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker