A Bay Area man is facing a 100-year prison sentence after being found guilty of a wild, daylong crime spree that included a carjacking, climbing through a residential window and stealing a golf cart. A jury in Monterey County this week found Tele Matangi, 37, from Pittsburg guilty of numerous charges stemming from a day of chaos in 2023.
On Sept. 18, 2023, Matangi crashed through a locked gate in a parking lot at Gonzales High School in Gonzales, a city of nearly 10,000 residents near Salinas in Monterey County, the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement . After abandoning his vehicle, Matangi carjacked a passing driver at gunpoint and drove the stolen vehicle north on Highway 156, where he turned into oncoming traffic on Highway 101, resulting in a collision. He exited the vehicle and proceeded to fire shots at a good Samaritan who had stopped to help, with one shot hitting the bystander’s car, according to the statement.
Matangi then fled on foot to a nearby park-and-ride lot where he tried to carjack another person but was unable to start the vehicle. He ran across the street and broke into a home by tearing a screen from a window and climbing inside. There, he stole the resident’s car keys at gunpoint and fled in that resident’s vehicle. Matangi then crossed over into San Benito County near Aromas, where he abandoned the vehicle and stole a golf cart. After abandoning the cart, he hid out in a resident’s storage unit. The resident told Matangi to leave, and he was later approached by a San Benito County sheriff’s deputy as he was walking on Carpenteria Road. Matangi brandished his gun at the deputy before being arrested with the help of Monterey County sheriff’s deputies, the statement read…