A 24-year-old Federal Heights man who “crushed” an Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office deputy between two vehicles in 2020 was sentenced to a decade behind bars

Diego Gallegos Castorena, 24, was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday in Arapahoe County District Court by Judge Ben Leutwyler for second-degree assault. Castorena pleaded guilty to the charge in March, according to a release from the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

The charges stem from a Jan. 22, 2020, incident where Castorena was “delivering drugs in a stolen vehicle” at the Cornerstar Ranch Apartments near South Park and South Chambers Roads, according to an officer involved shooting report for the incident.

Uniformed and undercover deputies responded to the complex to arrest Castorena. They observed him backing into a spot in a stolen Chevrolet Silver Super Sport, but did not immediately get out.

A deputy with the department pulled an unmarked Ford F150 in front of the stolen truck, “placing his front bumper against the Silverado’s” and then exited the vehicle issuing commands for Castorena to put his hands up.

Castorena refused and instead attempted to drive forward into the unmarked police truck in an attempt to escape. He then reversed and pinned a deputy between the truck and a Ford Escape that was parked in an adjacent spot, according to the report.

Eventually, Castorena reversed onto a gray area and ran into an electrical box. He then switched gears and started driving towards the initial parking spot where the injured deputy and another deputy were.

As a result, one deputy fired a weapon eight times and struck Castorena three times — grazed his head, chest and penetrated his left arm — which resulted in him crashing into multiple parked vehicles where he was apprehend, according to the report.

“You don’t get to ram a patrol car and injure a deputy and then just walk away,” said District Attorney John Kellner in a release. “This defendant chose to commit a crime and then, rather than surrender, he made things worse when deputies tried to apprehend him.”

The deputies actions were deemed justified in the report into the officer-involved shooting.