A San Antonio man has been hit with a federal prison term of more than 32 years after a judge held him responsible for a 2020 armed-robbery streak that targeted gas stations and pawn shops across the city. The sentence caps a cross-agency probe that linked several suspects to a flurry of late-December heists and left small-business workers rattled, with federal prosecutors describing the case as a coordinated pattern of violence that called for a serious response.
U.S. District Judge Jason Pulliam sentenced 31-year-old Brian Gonzales to 386 months in federal prison - roughly 32 years and two months - after Gonzales pleaded guilty on Sept. 11, 2025, to one count of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery and four counts tied to brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence, according to MyTexasDaily. The court handed down four 84-month sentences on the firearm counts and a 50-month sentence on the conspiracy charge, with the conspiracy term set to run concurrently with state time. Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Yuen prosecuted the case.
Robbery spree and probe
According to prosecutors, the scheme kicked off in mid-December 2020 and involved a series of coordinated hits around San Antonio. The string included an alleged robbery on Dec. 17 and a second gas-station holdup on Dec. 18, followed by several pawn-shop robberies later in the month. Court records and reporting state that investigators tied the incidents together using surveillance video and related investigative leads.
The filings also point to other alleged participants. Authorities say London Morgan traveled from Dallas to take part, and that Morgan and Christopher Harrell carried out three pawn-shop robberies on Dec. 28 and 29, 2020. Brian and Kevin Gonzales were later charged in a 13-count superseding indictment filed Oct. 4, 2023, and the case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the San Antonio Police Department, according to MyTexasDaily.
Legal notes
Under federal law, using a firearm during a violent crime triggers mandatory prison time that must run on top of any sentence for the underlying offense. Under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c), brandishing a firearm in a crime of violence brings a seven-year mandatory minimum added consecutively, and the statute defines "brandish" as displaying a gun or otherwise making its presence known to intimidate another person, per 18 U.S.C. § 924. Those stacked firearm penalties account for most of Gonzales’s 386-month sentence.
Prosecutors said pursuing the case federally allowed them to pull together evidence from different jurisdictions and seek punishment that reflected what they described as repeated, violent conduct. With Gonzales now headed to federal prison, other defendants named in the indictments continue to face state or federal proceedings as the investigation’s fallout plays out in court.
