A teenage robber was sentenced to 99 years in prison on Friday for infiltrating a high school Halloween costume party, forcing partygoers to the ground at gunpoint and then stealing their money, phones, iPods, jewelry — and a girl’s car.
Jurors deliberated about an hour on Thursday before convicting 19-year-old Pedro Dominguez of 11 cases of aggravated robbery and one case of burglary of a habitation.
On Friday the panel deliberated about 1 1/2 hours in assessing the maximum punishment: 99 years for all of the aggravated robbery charges and a 20-year sentence for the burglary charge. The sentences will run concurrently.
During the weeklong trial, prosecutors Page Simpson and Brock Groom presented evidence that on the night of Oct. 30, 2010, Dominguez and four accomplices drove from Fort Worth to a house in Pantego, where members of the Arlington School District’s gymnastics team were having a “wholesome” Halloween party.
Dominguez and his crew, donning black clothing and masks, crashed the party and pulled out guns. They forced about 20 youths to lie face-down on the floor and robbed them, as well as the parents hosting the party.
During the heist, a parent arrived to pick up his son and was pistol-whipped by the gunmen before they fled in a car stolen from a girl at the party.
The stolen car was later found abandoned on Hemphill Street in Fort Worth, where the suspects had attempted to torch it.
All five suspects were arrested and charged in connection with the home-invasion robbery. One teen has been tried and is serving a 10-year sentence in the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. The cases against the other three co-defendants are pending.
During the punishment phase of the trial, jurors heard that Dominguez has a lengthy juvenile record and was convicted as an adult in 2010 for burglarizing a motor vehicle. He also has pending charges for burglary and theft and admitted on the witness stand this week that he and his friends sometimes skipped school to commit burglaries.
“The jury did exactly what we asked them —they sent this defendant to the penitentiary for as long as possible to protect this community,” said Assistant District Attorney Page Simpson.
