Man convicted of attempted murder, robbery, burglary for Coachella break-in
A man who broke into a Coachella home last summer and was shot during a firefight, then later claimed that he was wounded during an unrelated altercation at a gas station on the other side of the county, was sentenced today to 23 years to life in state prison.
Christopher Reyes, 24, of Thousand Palms, was convicted of attempted murder, burglary and robbery earlier this year for the July 9, 2017, break-in at a home in the 48000 block of La Playa Street.
Prosecutors said Reyes and an unknown accomplice opened fire on the resident and missed before Reyes inadvertently was shot by his cohort.
The burglars were spotted when the resident returned home and saw flashlights through the front windows of his house, court documents state. When the resident entered the home, Reyes and his accomplice fired on him, prompting the homeowner to flee and call police, while the burglars escaped over the back wall of the property.
The homeowner later found that more than $16,000 in belongings were missing from his home, prosecutors alleged. Fingerprints found on a bedroom window, which police said was broken to gain entry to the residence, linked Reyes to the crime, prosecutors said.
Later that night, another homeowner found Reyes hiding inside a storage shed in the backyard of a residence on Arica Drive, just east of La Playa Street, bleeding from a shoulder wound.
Reyes fled before the Arica Drive homeowner called police, but blood found inside the shed was later matched to Reyes, according to prosecutors.
Reyes was later taken to San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital in Banning, where he told police that he was returning to the Coachella Valley from a trip to Los Angeles when he got into an altercation with an unidentified black man who shot him at a Moreno Valley gas station.
Employees at the gas station could not confirm any such shooting happened, nor could shell casings be found, prosecutors said.
Reyes was arrested in November in Indio.
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