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BOUNTIFUL — A man arrested in connection with a deadly confrontation between a Bountiful pawn shop owner and two robbers was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury.
Alexander Cutino Sanchez, 31, of Houston, is indicted on 11 counts of robbery and 11 counts of using a firearm during a violent crime.
Those robbery charges include an incident on May 4 when prosecutors say Sanchez entered Bountiful Pawn, 135 S. 500 West, along with Kleydys Arbolaez-Hernandez, 40, of Denver.
The store clerk, the lone employee in the business, was ordered at gunpoint to lie on the ground, according to police. But while the two men were distracted, the clerk made a break for the storage area. Arbolaez-Hernandez chased after the clerk and pointed his weapon at him. The clerk, who at that point was able to get to his own concealed gun, shot Arbolaez-Hernandez, who died after a brief struggle on the floor with the clerk.
Sanchez ran out of the store following the shooting. He was arrested in Houston following a monthlong search.
After comparing notes with other police jurisdictions in Utah, investigators determined that Sanchez "appeared to be the same person who had committed a number of aggravated robberies throughout northern Utah between January and May 2018," according to a statement from U.S. Attorney for Utah John Huber.
In addition to the incident in Bountiful, the indictment ties Sanchez to five robberies in West Valley City, three in Salt Lake City, one in West Jordan and one in Millcreek.
Related:
Man wanted in fatal Bountiful pawn shop robbery arrested in Texas
A man wanted in connection with a fatal pawn shop robbery earlier this month was arrested in Houston, Texas, police said.Sanchez, who has an alias of Alexyanis Chino Jimenez, faces a potential maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each of the 11 robbery counts if convicted. For the firearms charges, he could be sentenced to 257 years in prison if convicted on all 11 counts.
Sanchez is also a suspect in several robberies in Oklahoma, Colorado and Texas. As of Thursday, he was in Oklahoma to face charges in that state. Utah prosecutors have placed a detainer on him, meaning his next stop after Oklahoma would be Utah to face charges here.
