A jury found 39-year-old Rene Maganas guilty of Possession of a Controlled Substance and Evading Arrest with a Prior following a June 19, 2024, incident that began with a FLOCK alert on a stolen vehicle.
Officers observed Maganas and another male near the stolen vehicle at a gas station. As police vehicles arrived, Maganas fled on foot, discarding numerous items while running across a service road and four lanes of highway. A covert officer and additional uniformed officers apprehended Maganas within minutes on the other side of the highway.
Officers recovered several discarded items, including 15 grams of methamphetamine and Maganas’ wallet containing his ID.
After about 30 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict on both charges. Maganas, who has a lengthy criminal history involving narcotics and evading arrest, chose to have his punishment assessed by the judge. Prosecutors proved two enhancement paragraphs, and Maganas was identified as a documented member of the Tango Blast gang.
He was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the possession charge and 10 years for the evading charge.
The case was prosecuted by William Davison and Jui Kothare, with investigative support from DA Investigators Tom Naulty and Bonita Morgan.
