Convicted robber pleads guilty to carjacking near Fashion Island, sentenced to 22 years

A 28-year-old convicted robber pleaded guilty Friday and was immediately sentenced to 22 years in prison for a carjacking near Fashion Island and leading police on a chase before barricading himself into a house and ultimately surrendering.

Alfredo M. Hopgood-Otero of Costa Mesa was charged with taking one vehicle, and when it broke down, carjacking a black Jeep Cherokee at gunpoint, police said.

Hopgood-Otero accepted a plea deal from Orange County Superior Court Judge Larry Yellin that prosecutors objected to, according to the defendant’s attorney, Kaveh Newmen. The defendant had credit for 872 days behind bars.

Officers were dispatched at 3:33 p.m. Oct. 4, 2022, to a report of a carjacking near Fashion Island, police said.

Police picked up the pursuit of the Jeep Cherokee for several miles until Hopgood-Otero pulled over on Santiago Drive in the Dover Shores neighborhood, jumped out and ran away and hid in a residence, where he barricaded himself, police said.

Officers eventually caught up to Hopgood-Otero at 8:50 p.m. in a backyard within a perimeter police had established, and he surrendered without incident, police said.

Hopgood-Otero also resolved a 2021 case in which he was charged with a felony count of assault with a deadly weapon and single misdemeanor counts of brandishing a weapon, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a controlled substance. He was out on bail in that case when he was accused of the carjackings in Newport Beach.

Hopgood-Otero pleaded guilty in July 2018 to robbery at an automatic teller with a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon as well as misdemeanor counts of being under the influence of drugs, possession of a controlled substance and destroying or concealing evidence.