A transient has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for stealing a Yakima DoorDash driver's car with the driver's children inside.
William Ray Onsurez, 31, entered an "In Re Barr" plea in Yakima County Superior Court on Jan. 31 to second-degree robbery for taking the food-delivery driver's vehicle from the East Chestnut Avenue Walmart, and second-degree burglary at a South First Street hardware store.
In the plea, Onsurez pleaded guilty to charges not entirely supported by the facts in order to avoid a harsher sentence if he had been convicted of his original charges.
"Had a jury not believed the defense's claims, it could have been catastrophic" for Onsurez, said Charles Dold, Onsurez's attorney. If he had been convicted on the original charges, Onsurez would have faced life without parole under the state's "Three Strikes Law."
Onsurez was initially charged with four counts of first-degree kidnapping, first-degree robbery motor vehicle theft, second-degree burglary and indecent liberties. The kidnapping charges stem from the DoorDash driver's children being in the car when Onsurez took it.
In addition to dismissing the kidnapping, first-degree robbery, motor vehicle theft and indecent liberties charges, prosecutors also dropped unrelated charges of first-degree theft and felony failure to register as a sex offender.
Onsurez's criminal history includes prior convictions for failing to register as a sex offender, second-degree possession of stolen property, second-degree assault, second-degree child molestation and residential burglary.
Judge Richard Bartheld followed the sentencing recommendation in the plea agreement, sentencing Onsurez to seven years for the burglary — which was the top of the state sentencing range — and 10 years for the robbery, which is the statutory maximum sentence, with both sentences running concurrently for a total of 17 years, minus time served while awaiting trial.
On the night of Jan. 16, 2023, a DoorDash driver went to the eastside Walmart to pick up an order, leaving his 17-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son in the car, according to court documents.
The daughter called her father and said a man was driving off with the car, court documents said. The driver found his children shortly afterward near Sarg Hubbard Park, and the girl told police the man got in the driver's seat, pointed a gun at her and told her not to scream, a police affidavit said.
The man dropped off the children in the 300 block of Chalmers Street, and they went back to the Walmart to find their father, according to the affidavit.
Four hours later, police went to Morton's Supply, 1724. S. First St., for a burglary. Security cameras showed two men break the glass on the store's front around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, grab more than $1,500 worth of bolt cutters and leave, the affidavit said.
While police were investigating the burglary, YPD's camera system spotted the DoorDash driver's car in the area of South 18th Street and East Mead Avenue, the affidavit said. The car sped off when a Union Gap police officer attempted to stop it, according to a Union Gap police affidavit, leading the officer on a high-speed chase with speeds approaching 80 mph.
Officers lost sight of the vehicle but found it empty near the intersection of East Thorton and Buwalda lanes, the Union Gap affidavit said. Police and Yakima County sheriff's deputies located Onsurez and another suspect in the burglary nearby. The suspects' clothing matched what the burglars were seen in the video wearing in the break-in at Morton's, the affidavit said.
The other suspect, Derek Jeffrey Marek, 29, pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary and possession of a stolen motor vehicle, and was sentenced to three months in jail in April 2023.
