Defendant has spent ~80 percent of adult life in jails and prisons
Roseville, Calif.- A 39-year-old Roseville man with a history of gang involvement has been sent to state prison for 36 years to life by a Placer County judge who noted that the defendant has spent nearly 80 percent of his adult life in jails and prisons.
Jose Vincent Rubal Jr., a three-strike offender, received the sentence Tuesday after Superior Court Judge Jeff Penney denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss prior serious felony strikes in hopes of getting a lesser prison term.
Penney said Rubal’s criminal history showed convictions on six felonies and five misdemeanors, numerous violations of probations or paroles and involvement in a prison gang. At least two of his prior crimes involved assaults with a knife, Penney said.
The judge calculated that Rubal has been an adult for 7,953 days and that he has served 6,350 of them in custody, or 79.8 percent of his life behind bars.
Penney said Rubal has also had a history of drug use and that he has gone through drug rehabilitation programs. However, “these do not seem to work,” he said.
‘The prospects for the defendant leading a stable, crime-free life in the community are unlikely,’ Penney said.
Prosecutor Tracy Lunardi of the Placer County District Attorney’s Office said Rubal’s most recent problems began Dec. 16, 2008, when Roseville police tried to make a traffic stop on him.
Rubal abandoned the vehicle, which was registered to him and which contained drugs and a gun, Lunardi said. Rubal, who was on parole, was arrested two months later in Oklahoma, she said.
While in custody in the Placer County jail, Rubal made phone calls in an effort to solicit fellow gang members to take responsibility for driving his car in the 2008 incident. The phone calls were recorded by jail officers, Lunardi said.
On Oct. 5, 2010, Rubal entered a plea of no contest to felony charges of transporting a controlled substance and solicitation to subordinate perjury.
Rubal also admitted special allegations of having two previous violent or serious felony convictions under California’s three-strikes law.
Lunardi said Rubal had ‘worked long and hard to earn a life in prison.’ She cited such activities as continued drug involvement, the two stabbing incidents and the ordering of gang members to assault young men who didn’t want to join his gang.
The prosecutor credited the Roseville Police Department and its Crime Suppression Unit with bringing Rubal to justice.
‘They did a fantastic job in getting one of the worst gang members in Roseville off the streets,’ she said.
