Man to face 10-year prison sentence for threatening his friend with a gun
30-year-old Samuel Mendoza Jr. was arrested under PC 245 (a)(2), assault with a firearm, PC 236-237, false imprisonment, PC 29800(a)(1), felony possession of a firearm, and PC 4573, bringing illegal drugs into a jail.
Mendoza is no stranger to law enforcement – he has also been arrested with multiple priors for car theft and possession of an illegal substance. It was early afternoon on Friday, February 21 that Mendoza assaulted a male friend with a .22 caliber handgun while at the victim’s family’s home. The family noticed that Mendoza started acting weird, and the victim told police that while partying, Mendoza pulled a handgun and started to threaten him with it.
Police quickly responded to the call reporting a hostage situation on the 600 block of Larkmead Court in San Jose. When officers arrived, one of the family members living at the home was able to give officers a cell phone with the victim and suspect on speaker phone.
The victim told officers Mendoza had been acting weird and “paranoid”, and felt that he was going to try to kill him after drinking beer and smoking marijuana with him. SJPD Officers ran Mendoza’s record and soon learned that he was on probation and had outstanding warrants for his arrest. Police reported that Mendoza had an active warrant out from the San Jose Police Department for assaulting a police officer, (SJPD 14-018-0466). There were several times during the incident that the victim wanted to leave the home, but the suspect would not let him.
An officer using the cell phone spoke to both the victim and the suspect. He heard the victim tell the suspect, “Just don’t man, I don’t want to die”. The officer was able speak to the suspect and tried to help him to stay calm. And the victim told the officer, “You need to have them back up or he is going to do it”.
The suspect had threatened to shoot officers if they did not back up from the residence. Both the suspect and victim were able to see the uniformed officers around the home and in the yard. After a brief confrontation, the suspect inside the home finally allowed the victim to come out. Both the victim and suspect exited through the side gate to the front yard of the home. The suspect had told the officer on the phone that he had thrown the gun over the fence, so that when he exited the home they would not shoot him. He was arrested at 2 pm.
Mendoza was booked into the Santa Clara Main Jail for the incident that day at 3:50 pm. The next court date has been scheduled for Wednesday, October 1 at 1:30 PM in Dept 24.
