Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

LOS ANGELES – A convicted felon who brought an assault rifle into a restaurant and brandished it at the manager after employees refused to serve him an alcoholic beverage was sentenced today to 120 months in federal prison.

Francisco Alvarado Felix, 33, of Hesperia, was sentenced by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner.

Felix and a friend visited a BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse in Victorville during the early morning hours of December 29, 2018. He attempted to order an alcoholic drink, but BJ’s employees declined to serve him because he did not have proper identification. When restaurant employees later saw Felix sipping from his friend’s alcoholic beverage, the manager warned Felix he was not allowed to drink alcohol without identification and he would be forced to leave the restaurant if he did it again.

Felix then went to his car and returned with a concealed AR-15 rifle. He flashed the rifle at the manager and the two ended up in a fight on the ground, which resulted in one round being discharged from the rifle. No one was hit. Felix fled the scene with the rifle and hid until the next morning when officers executed a search warrant and arrested him at his house. During the search, officers recovered the AR-15 rifle, ammunition, and, on Felix’s person, 37.6 grams of methamphetamine packaged in two separate baggies.

In August 2019, Felix pleaded guilty to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, and one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Felix previously was convicted in San Bernardino County Superior Court for felony DUI in 2014 and of three separate felony methamphetamine-related charges in 2015 and 2016.

At the time of the scuffle with the manager at BJ’s Restaurant, Felix was out on bail in a state case. The state case stemmed from a December 5, 2018 incident at a Highland casino when a valet parking attendant found a semi-automatic pistol attached to the front console of Felix’s car next to the driver’s seat. Felix was subsequently charged by the United States Attorney’s Office in that matter, and he has pleaded guilty to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. His next court hearing in that matter is March 16 before United States District Judge Dale S. Fischer, who may impose a sentence at that time. Felix faces a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison in this second firearms-related case.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department investigated this case.

This matter was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jerry C. Yang of the Riverside Branch Office.