By Monica Velez
After two witnesses took the stand the morning of January 5, 2016, Dagoberto Estrada Bocanegra accepted a plea bargain. Bocanegra was on trial for two counts in Yolo County and one count in Solano County, pleading no contest on all of them.
The charges Bocanegra faced in Yolo County were carjacking, theft of vehicle, vandalism (count one) and serious bodily injuries (count two). In Solano County the charge was the selling of methamphetamines to an undercover officer (count three).
The agreement Deputy DA Kyle Hasapes and Deputy Public Defender Richard Van Zandt put together gave Bocanegra a total of eight years and eight months in state prison for all three charges.
If the trial had not been resolved with the plea bargain, the jury would have decided whether Bocanegra was guilty of serious bodily injuries. The evidence compiled from the night of August 16, 2015, is what would have been further discussed and presented to the jury.
In the beginning of the trial, there was a question as to whether the first witness, the person who made the call to the police, had relevant testimony to present to the jury. Hasapes argued that the witness was essential to the start of the case, while Van Zandt thought it wasn’t worth the time because it did not relate to the charges put on Bocanegra.
After hearing the first witness take the stand, without the jury present, the judge decided the witness was essential for the jury to hear, for the purpose of background information to the case.
The first witness described the car she saw while she was on the highway, on her way back from eating dinner. She said it was a red and white Dodge lifted truck, and it was swerving, stopping and going, for about five miles.
The witness was not driving, but said the driver decided to pass the truck. After they passed the truck, the driver of the truck (Bocanegra) sped up and followed them as they went on to Highway 29 where their destination was.
The witness said Bocanegra parked, blocking the road in front of the property they had entered, which belonged to the driver of the car the witness was in. After about 10 to 15 minutes of waiting for the truck to move, the witness called the police because she wanted to go home, but couldn’t because the truck was blocking her car.
After the witness called the police, Bocanegra drove off, and the witness said she heard the police sirens by the time she arrived home.
The second witness was Yolo County Deputy Sheriff Sean Galey, who responded to a dispatch call of a red and white lifted truck. Galey told Hasapes that, when he saw the truck, he observed the truck for about a mile and then started driving behind him, turning his lights on.
The truck did not pull over and Galey followed him over county roads, dirt patches, orchards and fields, at speeds up to 97 mph.
Hasapes showed a video from Galey’s patrol car, showing the chase he went on across county lines. Bocanegra was consistently swerving, going over the center divider into the left lane, in between both lanes, at speeds varying between 50 mph and 97 mph.
When Galey followed Bocanegra into an orchard, a lot of dust distorted his vision, resulting in Galey crashing into a ditch, giving him a concussion, loud ringing in his left ear and vomiting. Galey also had migraines after the crash that he had not experienced before the incident.
The chase lasted a total of 30 miles and 38 minutes. Galey was not the only officer who was injured, but was the only one the jury was allowed to hear from before the plea agreement. The other officer involved got nine stitches, according to Hasapes’s opening statement.
Bocanegra’s sentencing is on February 23, 2016, in Yolo County.
