Monterey man sentenced to 8 years following two-year crime spree

A Monterey man was sentenced to eight years and four months for a crime spree committed over two years.

The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office announced that Leslie Flores Sr., 59, an owner of multiple rental properties in Monterey was sentenced for a myriad of felony and misdemeanors including possession of a short-barreled rifle/assault weapon, failure to appear in court while on bail, failure to appear while on his own recognizance, reckless evading of a police officer, resisting a peace officer, various drug related charges, mail theft, assault likely to cause great bodily injury and trespassing on a renter’s property without consent.

On March 18, 2022 Flores Sr. and his son Leslie Flores Jr. assaulted a bouncer who worked at the Britannia Arms in Monterey because the bouncer would not allow them inside the establishment. At one point Flores Jr. strangled the bouncer while Flores Sr. prevented onlookers from coming to the bouncer’s aid. Afterwards, Flores Sr. punched the bouncer twice in the face, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Over the next two years while the felony court case was pending, Flores Sr. was caught multiple times with drugs, he was caught in possession of his tenants’ mail and caught on video trespassing on one of his tenant’s properties without consent or proper notice.

During a traffic stop, police found an illegal assault rifle with a shortened barrel.

“Because of changes to California’s bail laws, Flores was able to remain out of custody despite continuously committing new crimes,” the District Attorney’s Office press statement reads.

By mid-2023, Flores began to evade the court system. He repeatedly failed to appear in court, with either no excuse or telling the court he was in a treatment program when he was not.

On three separate occasions judges issued bench warrants for Flores’s failure to appear in court between December 2023 and February 2024. Flores also successfully evaded the Monterey Police, including twice when he led police on high-speed chases through residential neighborhoods in Monterey and got away.

On July 3, 2024 the Monterey Police found out that Flores was in his home on Cielo Vista Drive. The department’s SWAT team set up a perimeter to stop him from escaping. This led to a seven-hour standoff until SWAT cleared the home and found Flores barricaded in a compartment under the floor of his home. Police had to use a chainsaw to forcibly extract and arrest Flores. At that time, he had 14 pending felony and misdemeanor cases.

Flores remained in custody without bail and the trial was in October.

Flores Sr. was sentenced Wednesday. He submitted numerous letters from his own family requesting a rehabilitation program instead of prison. However, the judge found that Flores was unsuitable for probation because he regularly showed defiance to law enforcement, his own attorneys and his own family the last two years. He was also ordered multiple times to rehabilitation programs, but did not go. Flores was sentenced to six years and four months in prison and an additional two years of local jail time.