Jorge Pupo sentenced to prison for multiple crimes

Jorge Alejandro Pupo, 45, was sentenced to prison for multiple crimes stemming from a traffic violation that turned into an officer involved shooting outside of a hotel in Lee County.

Pupo was found guilty at a trial in March and has now been sentenced to 20 years in prison for one count of Aggravated Assault on a Law Enforcement Officer as a Habitual Felony Offender and Prison Releasee Re-offender, according to the Office of the State Attorney 20th Judaical Circuit press release. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon also as a Habitual Felony Offender and a year in jail for Resisting an Officer without Violence. The sentence will run concurrent.

The crimes happened in April 2018 when Pupo was riding in the passenger seat of a car that a Lee County Sheriff’s Deputy pulled over following a traffic violation on U.S. 41 in Fort Myers. The car had just pulled out of a hotel parking lot, per the document. The driver pulled into a parking lot at a nearby shopping center and Pupo jumped out and took off running.

The deputy detained the other two passengers in the car and called for back-up. A second Lee County Sheriff’s Deputy along with his K-9 came to assist. The deputies went in search of the defendant while other deputies also aided to help find him, according to the 20th Judicial Circuit document. A third deputy spotted Pupo near the hotel where the car had originally pulled out. The original

deputies on the scene along with the K-9 tracked down Pupo and found him outside of a hotel room door holding a semi-automatic weapon pointed at his head, per the release. The deputies ordered him to lower his weapon but instead he pointed it at the deputy with the K-9. Fearing for their lives, the deputies fired their weapons at the defendant and released the dog. Once the suspect was down, they rendered aid and he was transported to the hospital.