Man Given 27-Year Term in Pizza Delivery Slaying

“We were loaded on beer and pot . . . guess we got the munchies,” was the only explanation Elias Sanchez could offer to a court official about the night in November when he phoned in a pizza order, lay in wait for the delivery man, then shot and killed him.

On Wednesday Judge John Major of San Fernando Superior Court sentenced Sanchez, 20, of Arleta, to 27 years to life in prison.

Sanchez was arrested the day after the shooting. Last month he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder with the use of a firearm. By law he will be eligible for parole in 13 years.

A probation official who interviewed Sanchez for a pre-sentencing report quoted him as saying the killing was motivated by hunger:

“We wanted food, not money . . . . I’m sorry this whole thing happened . . . sorry he got killed.”

Police found Chat Thanasinap, a 35-year-old immigrant from Thailand, lying in a pool of blood in front of an Arleta housing project, money in his pocket and two cold pizzas in the street beside him. Thanasinap had been shot from behind with a high-powered rifle.

Prosecutors allege that Sanchez drove to the housing project, where he used to live, called a Pizza Man delivery store from a telephone booth and waited in a car with a friend.

When Thanasinap arrived, Sanchez tried to rob him, police said. Thanasinap ran. Sanchez, described by prosecutors as an amateur rifle expert, shot him from 75 feet away, police said.

Sanchez got neither money nor food, police said.

Deputy Probation Officer Donald Kniff, in his pre-sentence report, told the judge that after the shooting Sanchez enjoyed a “leisurely” dinner at a Mexican restaurant.

“Life may be cheap, but it should not be that cheap,” Kniff wrote, recommending that Major give Sanchez the maximum sentence. “Some poor guy earning a living by delivering pizza at midnight has his life snuffed out almost on a lark.”

Friends of Thanasinap said he had been working an eight-hour shift during the day for Courier Express and then working seven hours a night at Pizza Man. He was an economics graduate of a Thai university who came to the United States two years ago.

Sanchez was an unemployed tile layer who had been arrested for auto theft as a minor but otherwise had a clean record, according to records filed in court. Relatives, friends and his old guidance counselor from San Fernando High School wrote letters to the court saying they believed Sanchez to be a hard-working, intelligent man who made a mistake.

The friend alleged to have been waiting in the car with Sanchez, Brad Jenson, pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy to commit robbery and will be sentenced at a later date. He faces a maximum sentence of six years in state prison.