Career Criminal Prosecution Outcome

WCDA Secures Lengthy Prison Sentence Against Defendant Following 13th Felony Conviction

The Washoe County District Attorney’s Office has announced that William Sarmiento, Jr., age 50, has been adjudicated a habitual criminal and was sentenced on August 31, 2020, in District Court by the Honorable Egan Walker to 30 years in the Nevada Department of Corrections with parole eligibility beginning after a minimum of 9 years has been served. Sarmiento previously pled guilty in July to two counts of Burglary and one count of Living Off the Earnings of a Prostitute, representing his eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth felony conviction. Sarmiento’s prior felony convictions include crimes of Robbery, Attempted Burglary, Sales of a Controlled Substance, Theft, and Possession of a Stolen Motor Vehicle.

Case Details:

Sarmiento was arrested on March 24, 2020 by the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) after he was contacted at a local park after hours and found to be in possession of a controlled substance. Additional investigation by the WCSO resulted in Sarmiento also being charged with possession of burglary tools and various fraud related offenses linked to the discovery of stolen credit cards, forged checks, stolen property and various forms of personal identification and banking information of others. While in custody, detectives with the Northern Nevada Repeat Offender Program (R.O.P.), found evidence that indicated Sarmiento had committed multiple burglaries of storage units in Sparks, Nevada, and booked him accordingly. R.O.P., with the assistance of detectives with the Human Exploitation and Trafficking Unit (H.E.A.T.), also learned during the investigation that Sarmiento had been accepting money from prostitution and was encouraging a female to engage in prostitution for his benefit.

At sentencing, Deputy District Attorney Barrack Potter argued that Sarmiento’s criminal history, which consists of convictions spanning over 30 years, and his inability to stop committing crimes, even while in custody, warranted him being sentenced as a habitual criminal and spending substantial time in prison.