An El Salvadoran national, LUIS MEJIA-ALAS, 30, has been handed a 20-month federal prison sentence after being charged with illegal firearm possession in Oklahoma City. The Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office announced the sentencing on September 24, detailing that the offender engaged in a high-speed chase with police before crashing his vehicle and being apprehended with a gun at the scene.
According to the account, the incident unfolded on January 29, when an Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP) trooper attempted to stop Mejia-Alas’s pickup truck. The truck attempted to flee, leading the trooper on a chase that concluded when Mejia-Alas crashed into a shopping center’s cart return cage. After briefly fleeing on foot, he was captured, with a trooper finding a firearm in the floorboard of his truck. On March 18, Mejia-Alas faced charges from a federal Grand Jury, to which he pleaded guilty on June 3, admitting to the possession of the firearm and his illegal presence in the United States.
At the sentencing hearing prior to two days on September 23, U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton sentenced Mejia-Alas to serve 20 months in federal prison. “The nature and circumstances of the offense” were noted by Judge Heaton as contributing factors to the sentencing decision. The case was prosecuted by Department of Justice Assistant U.S. Attorney David Nichols, Jr., following an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations and the OHP…