A 29-year-old Long Beach man has been sentenced to 26-and-a-half years in federal prison for his role in a robbery spree that ended with him fleeing police in a stolen car and smashing into multiple cars in South Gate, killing a 34-year-old driver.

Kaelenn Maea pleaded guilty to two felony counts stemming from three armed robberies during a one-week span in September 2023.

Prosecutors alleged that he and three other men robbed a Downey liquor store, a Compton gas station and a South El Monte convenience store during that stretch, netting $5,050 in stolen cash.

During the Downey robbery, Maea fired a short-barreled rifle, but did not hit anyone, prosecutors said. During the other two robberies, he pulled out the same rifle and stood in the doorway to prevent customers or employees from escaping.

On Oct. 9, 2023, he stole a Range Rover in East Los Angeles, then led police on an hour-long, high-speed chase that ended when he slammed into a gray Nissan Sentra around 3:30 p.m. at the intersection of Southern Avenue and State Street in South Gate, according to court records.

The Nissan driver, later identified as 34-year-old Jose Ochoa Jr., was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office.

In a letter at Kaea’s sentencing, Ochoa’s sister remembered her brother as “the purest example of unconditional love I have ever known,” according to court records.

Maea kept driving after the collision and hit several other vehicles, injuring another driver, before he fled on foot along with two other men inside the car.

One of the men, 26-year-old Compton resident Salagi Iakopo, was arrested that day, but the two others escaped.

When detectives searched the car, they found two cellphones and a green hoodie with the word “Paris” on it that Maea had worn during one of the robberies.

They also recovered Maea’s interim driver’s license from inside a backpack left in the crashed Range Rover.

In April 2025, Maea pleaded guilty to two felony charges: one count of Hobbs Act robbery conspiracy and one count of possessing, using, carrying, brandishing and discharging a short-barreled rifle in furtherance of a crime of violence.

He was sentenced on Wednesday to 318 months in federal prison.

Prosecutors said his criminal history included a robbery conviction in 2017 — for which he was sentenced to six years in prison — and a conviction for owning a firearm as a felon — which led to a two-year prison sentence.

The other three men sentenced in connection with the robberies were:

  • Isaiah Villasana, 27, of Carson, who is serving a 10-year federal prison sentence after pleading guilty in April 2025 to a firearms charge for holding a victim at gunpoint during the Downey liquor store robbery.
  • Mathew Salanoa, 32, of Placentia, who is serving a 49-month federal prison sentence for participating in the Compton robbery after pleading guilty in August 2025 to one count of Hobbs Act robbery conspiracy.
  • Salagi Iakopo, 26, of Compton, who pleaded guilty in August 2025 to one count of Hobbs Act robbery conspiracy and is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 19.