OAKLAND — A San Jose man has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for selling a pistol to a Norteño gang member six years ago, a crime prosecuted by the Department of Justice as part of a massive operation at a powerful prison gang.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sentenced 32-year-old Max Urbina last week, court records show. He pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition for selling an AP-9 pistol to a member of a San Jose-based gang subset for $1,000, according to federal prosecutor.
Urbina was charged four years after the 2017 gun sale, because prosecutors had bigger fish to fry. They secured an indictment against him in 2021, while filing numerous cases at alleged members the Nuestra Familia prison gang and Norteño gangs it controls. A multi-murder racketeering case involving several alleged high-ranking members of the prison gang has been set for later this year.
Urbina’s lawyer, Kathryn Ross, said in court filings that the case was a “wake up call” and that Urbina could have benefited from more constructive intervention than prison after a childhood defined by “shame and blame.” She asked for a 20-month sentence and prosecutors asked for 37 months.
Gonzalez Rogers allowed the sentence to run concurrently with whatever Urbina might receive in a pending drug case in Santa Clara County Superior Court, records show.