Fifteen years in prison was handed down Monday for a man who participated in a violent robbery of the Apple Store at the Otay Ranch Town Center in which one of the robbers was shot to death.
Johnny Chenda, 26, was fined $1,262 by Chula Vista Superior Court Judge Ed Allard III, who gave him credit for spending 652 days in jail since the April 4, 2011 incident. A security guard shot Alex Somphonh Choulamontry, 23, after one robber pulled a gun and fired shots.
Choulamontry, Chenda, and Melissa Ortiz, 21, left with Choulamontry driving at 6:45 a.m., but he crashed the car into a light pole. Choulamontry had been shot in the head, and both Chenda and Ortiz were arrested after they were found hiding on someone’s porch.
Chendra pleaded guilty to robbery and using a gun in the crime. Allard gave Chendra five years for the hold-up plus 10 years consecutively for the gun charge.
Chendra had been charged with murder stemming from the death of his partner in crime, but a judge dismissed the charge at the preliminary hearing in 2011. Chendra’s attorney asked the judge to limit the sentence to 12 years.
Ortiz has been charged in another case in San Diego Superior Court.
