Photo Courtesy GCSO: Dominic Maldonado is now looking at 5 years in prison after leading police on an early-morning, high-speed chase through Safford.
By Jon Johnson
SAFFORD – An early morning high-speed police chase may reunite a young man with his twin brother in prison.
Dominic Maldonado, 19, was arrested Oct. 22 and booked into the Graham County Jail on charges of unlawful flight from pursuing law enforcement and reckless driving.
According to a Safford Police report, an officer was northbound on 8th Avenue at about 2:30 in the morning when his radar notified him of a vehicle traveling at 42 mph in a 25 mph zone.
The officer attempted to pull over the vehicle, a blue Nissan Sentra, but the car failed to yield and instead sped off running stop signs along 10th Avenue at more than an estimated 50 mph. The Nissan turned onto Relation Street and the officer lost sight of it.
The car was located shortly thereafter, however, parked on the east side of 10th Avenue near 16th Street. The car’s dash lights were on but no driver was present. As the officer inspected the vehicle, the dash lights turned off.
Dominic was then located walking nearby and later allegedly admitted to driving the car and then hiding in a yard when the police arrived. When asked why he had fled, Dominic allegedly answered that he was looking at “five years” in prison because of his probation, which included a suspended sentence for burglary. He never advised why he just didn’t pull over and receive the moving violation, which is a civil offense, and instead escalated it into criminal behavior. Dominic allegedly said he wasn’t worried about driving impaired because he had only had one beer to drink that night, however, anyone under the age of 21 can be charged with a DUI with the slightest amount of alcohol in their system while driving.
Dominic, along with his twin brother, Damian, broke into the Taking Aim Guns & Ammo store in Safford at 1122 W. Thatcher Blvd. during the early morning hours of Feb. 20. They broke the store’s front door and a display cabinet en route to stealing three 9-MM handguns ($300 each), and an Angstadt Arms model AA-0940 9-MM pistol valued at $1,439.
Dominic pleaded guilty to theft and burglary in the first degree. The plea dismissed an additional burglary charge and a charge of criminal damage and had a stipulated sentence of supervised probation for the theft count with all terms left to the court’s discretion. Dominic was sentenced on March 28 to three years on supervised probation and 180 days in jail with credit for 35 days served.
Sentencing for the burglary count was deferred. That means Dominic had the opportunity to have that charge dropped if he was successful on probation.
However, with his new charges, a judge could sentence him on the burglary count for between a mitigated minimum of 2 years to a maximum of 7 years in prison, with a presumptive being 5 years. Dominic has a review hearing on his deferred sentencing scheduled for Dec. 12.
Damian Maldonado update
Graham County Superior Court Judge Pro Tem Travis W. Ragland initially rejected Damian Maldonado’s plea agreement at the behest of the victim. While both twins have reported significant juvenile records, both the prosecution and judge advised that could not be used to aggravate the sentencing. However, Damian was currently on probation in Gila County, which aggravated his sentence over his brother’s.
Damian pleaded guilty on July 15 to trafficking in stolen property, a Class-2 felony, and misconduct involving weapons, a class-4 felony. His attorney, Dennis McCarthy, argued for a suspended sentence and probation to give him the same shot as his twin brother, but Judge Ragland found that was not appropriate and sentenced Damian to 3 years in prison as stipulated in his plea agreement. Damian will be allowed to be released early on one day for every seven served, but upon his release, he will be placed on probation for an additional 3 years. He was also ordered to pay $3,391.89 in restitution – along with Dominic – to Taking Aim Guns & Ammo.
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