Former Sacramento deputy convicted for assault weapons, also caught shoplifting, DA says
A former Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy was convicted after he was reportedly caught shoplifting and suspended from his job earlier this year, and was then found with firearms illegally converted into assault weapons, prosecutors said.
Hector Josue Chavez on Nov. 7 pleaded no contest to a felony charge of illegal possession of an assault weapon and a misdemeanor charge of impersonating an officer, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office announced Friday in a news release.
Chavez was still working as a deputy for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office on April 15, when he entered the Home Depot store at West Stockton and Laguna boulevards in Elk Grove, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said Chavez took merchandise from the store without paying before a Home Depot loss prevention officer confronted Chavez, who fled the store on foot.
Elk Grove Police Department officers later found and detained Chavez, who had with him the stolen store merchandise, according to the District Attorney’s Office. The news release did not indicate what was stolen from Home Depot.
As a result of the store theft, the Sheriff’s Office suspended Chavez and revoked his law enforcement powers, prosecutors said.
Over the following five months, Chavez used an old Sheriff’s Office identification card to purchase multiple firearms only law enforcement officers are lawfully allowed to possess, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Sheriff’s deputies on Aug. 25, served a search warrant at Chavez’s home, where they found multiple firearms that had been converted to assault weapons, prosecutors said.
Chavez, who was not in custody at the Sacramento County Jail as of Friday, is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 9, 2024, more than a year after his conviction. That same day, the District Attorney’s Office has scheduled a motion to dismiss one or both of Chavez’s criminal charges, according to Sacramento Superior Court online records.
It’s unclear whether Chavez’s charges will be dropped if he fulfills the requirements of his sentence. Prosecutors said Chavez is expected to be sentenced to a court offer of 180 days in jail and probation.
Shelly Orio, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney’s Office, declined to answer questions about the prosecution’s scheduled motion to dismiss or the details of Chavez’s sentence, including whether Chavez will he be allowed to serve his jail sentence through community service or some other type of jail alternative program, how long his probation is, whether he is now prohibited from owning or possessing any firearms and whether the court ordered him to stay away from the Elk Grove Home Depot.
The District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman also declined to say how man firearms converted to assaults weapons were found at Chavez’s home and whether any of those firearms will be returned to him.
It’s also unclear when Chavez’s employment with the Sheriff’s Office ended and how many years he worked for the law enforcement agency. Sgt. Amar Gandhi, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman, did not respond Friday to questions about the former deputy’s employment.
Chavez earned $133,808 in total pay as a deputy for the Sheriff’s Office in 2022, according to compensation records provided by the county to Transparent California. The records also show he worked as a Sacramento sheriff’s deputy each year from at least 2015 through 2021.
This story was originally published December 8, 2023 at 1:52 PM.
