Township man tried to take officer’s gun
By: Dick Brinster
TRENTON The 19-year-old college scholarship student from East Windsor who tried to take a police officer’s gun must serve 14 months of a six-and-a-half-year sentence before he can be considered for parole.
The sentence, part of a plea bargain, was imposed Oct. 6 on Christopher DeLaHoz, of Avon Drive. In addition to the guilty plea to the attempted disarming of a police officer June 10 in East Windsor, Mr. DeLaHoz received four years for an unrelated offense of theft by deception for faking a service station robbery in 2005 and three years for violation of probation.
Assistant Prosecutor Jim Scott agreed to drop aggravated assault, obstruction of justice and resisting arrest charges as part of a plea bargain reached in July.
The sentences are to run concurrently.
"I’ve had a lot of time to gather my thoughts," Mr. DeLaHoz said before Mercer County Superior Court Judge Maryann Bielamowicz imposed sentence. "I made a mistake, and I want to get my life back on track."
The judge said Mr. DeLaHoz seemed sincere in expressing remorse but needed to understand the seriousness of his crimes. She also said that Mr. DeLaHoz needs to use considerably better judgment after his release.
Referring to the service station incident, during which Mr. DeLaHoz gave $732 to an accomplice, Judge Bielamowicz called it "a big price to pay for not a lot of money."
"Frankly, as I review the offenses, they were stupid," she said. "It’s really unfortunate, because you’ve had opportunities."
She was alluding in part to the academic scholarship the 2005 Hightstown High School graduate won from the Methodist Madness basketball program of the First United Methodist Church of Hightstown. Mr. DeLaHoz completed his freshman year last spring at Mercer County Community College.
"I would do anything to get that back in my life," he said.
Mr. DeLaHoz accepted the sentence without emotion as his family looked on in the courtroom.
Prior to the sentencing, his mother, Joan DeLaHoz, said her son has made some very bad choices.
"The friends he hung out with were bad news," she said. "But he did very well in college."
Seated with her husband, Carlos, and her son, Andrew, Ms. DeLaHoz said she tried to steer Christopher away from the crowd, and that the family moved to Bucks County, Pa., a month ago.
"You can say my heart is broke," she said. "I have high blood pressure, and it’s getting higher."
In the June case, Mr. DeLaHoz had originally been charged with aggravated assault, attempting to disarm a police officer, three counts of obstructing a police officer, three counts of resisting arrest, underage consumption of alcohol and criminal mischief. Mr. DeLaHoz has seven arrests and now four convictions.
East Windsor police said Officer David Berez approached a parked car in which two men were seated in the parking lot of the Avon Village East Apartments around 2 a.m. June 10. Police said the man in the driver’s seat complied with a request to exit the vehicle, but Mr. DeLaHoz ran away.
Later, during a subsequent struggle, he tried to take the officer’s gun, police said.
In the other case, Mr. DeLaHoz, then working at the Hess station on Route 33 in East Windsor, told police he had been robbed. They said he claimed he was thrown to the ground during the incident, but officers noticed he was completely dry despite rain and snow.
The Rev. Neil Tolboom, the church pastor, has stood by Mr. DeLaHoz, and said the scholarship will be extended should he later decide to continue his education.