A felon who held up a Blythe gas station and carjacked a woman parked there, then led police on a pursuit into the Colorado River, was bound for state prison Wednesday to serve 22 years behind bars after pleading guilty to multiple charges.
Aaron Michael Delatorre, 31, on Tuesday admitted carjacking and robbery counts with sentence-enhancing gun use allegations under a pretrial agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. In exchange for his admissions, prosecutors dropped charges of gun assault and felony evading.
During a hearing at the Blythe Courthouse, Superior Court Judge Dean Benjamini certified the terms of the plea deal and imposed the sentence stipulated by the prosecution and defense.
The criminal complaint against Delatorre noted that he carried out his offenses on Nov. 11, 2022, with “a high degree of cruelty, viciousness and callousness.”
According to the Blythe Police Department, Delatorre went to a gas station that night near the intersection of East Hobsonway and North Intake Boulevard and confronted the clerk with a shotgun, demanding money from the cash drawer, which the man immediately handed over.
Investigators said the defendant then walked over to a car parked nearby and ordered the woman at the wheel, Valerie Anderson, to hand over her keys. During the confrontation, he hit her with the butt of the gun to gain her compliance and also threatened another person, Taylor Goodchild, at the location, according to police and court documents.
The defendant drove away in the sedan while the victims called 911.
As patrol officers arrived at the station, Delatorre returned in the stolen vehicle, but he floored it when he saw the patrol units, at which point a pursuit ensued.
It continued several miles, until Delatorre drove down an embankment and directly into the Colorado River while trying to make his escape, police said.
The defendant was rescued from the river an hour later during an operation involving Blythe police, the California Highway Patrol and sheriff’s deputies. The defendant was seriously injured and had to be airlifted to Desert Regional Hospital in Palm Springs, where he spent days recovering.
Court records show he had a prior adult conviction for assault with a deadly weapon and had been a juvenile offender, who had “sustained petitions (in delinquency court) that were numerous and showing increasing seriousness.”