Felon sentenced after being found with gun

EPHRATA — A convicted felon was sentenced on a criminal mischief charge after he was found with a gun.

Alexander Mata, 26, of Moses Lake, pleaded guilty in Grant County Superior Court to criminal mischief while armed. Grant County Superior Court Judge John Knodell followed a joint recommendation between Deputy Prosecutor Carole Highland and defense attorney Susan Oglebay and sentenced Mata to 15 days in jail, with the jail time converted to community service. Mata was initially charged with second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, but the charge was amended in a plea agreement between Highland and Oglebay.

About 12:15 a.m. on Oct. 24 the Moses Lake Police Department received a report of a man entering a taxi in the 5200 block of Patton Boulevard with drugs and a firearm. The unidentified reporting party followed the taxi and advised MACC Dispatch of the cab’s location, according to police records. About 12:20 a.m. the taxi driver contacted MACC Dispatch advising a tan-colored van was following her. Both the taxi and the van were eventually stopped in a parking lot in the 1400 block of South Pioneer Way.

The woman who was driving the van told police she was involved in an incident at her Larson Boulevard residence with her boyfriend, who was a passenger in the taxi. She said she was playing scratch tickets with her boyfriend and she hid a ticket under her bed. The woman’s boyfriend allegedly became upset and grabbed the woman on her “jawline.” She said her boyfriend struck her, but in a “playful manner.”

Police contacted two passengers in taxi, Mata and another man, and both were placed in wrist restraints. Mata admitted he had a firearm in his coat pocket and police located a semi-automatic pistol in his pocket. During a records search, the gun was not shown to be stolen. Mata’s record reportedly did not initially come back indicating any prior convictions.

Mata was released from the scene and police returned his firearm, advising him he could not carry the pistol concealed and it had to be visible. MACC Dispatch later advised police Mata had a previous felony conviction for third-degree assault in Vancouver, Wash. in 2013.

Police later found Mata in a parking lot on the corner of South Pioneer Way and East Nelson Road. He was told of a delayed return on his criminal record showing him as a convicted felon.