A convicted felon who joined another man in perpetrating a robbery in Perris during which shots were fired is slated to be sentenced Friday to more than 10 years in state prison.
Daniel Brandon Gonzalez, 23, of Perris was convicted in September of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, two counts of armed robbery and one count of being a felon in possession of a loaded gun, in addition to sentence-enhancing gun use allegations. The Banning jury acquitted him of attempted murder in connection with the March 2024 attack.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Samuel Diaz is scheduled to hand down the sentence Friday afternoon at the Banning Justice Center.
Gonzalez is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside.
His co-defendant, 24-year-old Ethan Michael Morris of Perris, pleaded guilty in 2024 to grand theft under a pretrial agreement negotiated with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. In exchange for his admission, prosecutors dropped two related charges against Morris. He was sentenced to six years in state prison.
According to Sgt. Chad Thompson of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, the pair confronted several people, whose identities were not disclosed, shortly after 8 p.m. on March 15, 2024, at a business in the 500 block of West Fourth Street, near Park Avenue.
During the encounter, Gonzalez pulled a handgun and demanded money from the victims, then shot at them but missed, authorities said. No one was injured.
The defendants immediately fled the location.
Detectives spent the ensuing days developing leads that ultimately pointed to Gonzalez and Morris as the robbers. A search warrant was served within a week at Gonzalez’s property in the 300 block of West Third Street, where “items of evidentiary value were located, along with three firearms,” Thompson said.
The defendant was taken into custody without incident.
Morris had been arrested days earlier after he was questioned by detectives at the sheriff’s Perris station.
Court records show Gonzalez has prior convictions for domestic violence and assault, while Morris had a prior for assault resulting in great bodily injury.