Gang Member and Armed Career Criminal Sentenced to 20 Years for Shooting at Federal Courthouse

EUGENE, OR—Eduardo Mendoza, Jr., 29, appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Michael R. Hogan and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for committing felony crimes while on supervised release for a 2004 federal drug trafficking conviction. On September 17, 2010, Mendoza pled guilty to being an armed career criminal and to shooting and damaging a federal courthouse.

An admitted Sureno gang member, on October 29, 2009, Mendoza, a Springfield resident, fired several shots from a vehicle as it was being driven by the Wayne Lyman Morse United States Courthouse. Mendoza's intended target was the U.S. Probation Office, but the bullets struck Congressman Peter DeFazio's office.

On November 28, 2009, Mendoza was arrested, along with another felon, in Springfield, Oregon by deputy U.S. Marshals for violating his supervised released. On April 22, 2010, a federal grand jury indicted Mendoza for damaging the federal courthouse and for being an armed career criminal.

Mendoza received the maximum 10-year prison term for damaging the U.S. Courthouse. Mendoza was sentenced to a concurrent 15-year mandatory prison term for possessing a pistol and ammunition because of his prior convictions for delivery methamphetamine to minors and violent felony assaults. Additionally, Mendoza was sentenced to the maximum five-year prison term for committing these crimes while on federal post-prison supervision. The defendant must serve this prison term consecutively to his other sentences, making the total sentence 20 years. Mendoza will also be required to pay $9,311.84 in restitution and upon his release from prison he must serve a term of five years of supervised release.

Agents of the FBI conducted the investigation receiving substantial assistance from the U.S. Marshals Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and officers with the Oregon State Police and the Springfield and Eugene Police Departments. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Papagni.

This article was sponsored by Police Leadership Books.