SANTA CRUZ >> A Central Valley man who admitted to firing a semiautomatic assault rifle while fleeing police through Scotts Valley last year apologized for his actions Wednesday.

“It came down to decisions, and I made a bad one,” Kristopher Payopay told Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Denine Guy during his sentencing hearing. “I acted out of desperation.”

Payopay, 42, of Lathrop, pleaded no contest in April to two felony counts of assault on a peace officer and one count of evading a peace officer, plus an enhancement for discharging a semiautomatic rifle. Guy, on Wednesday, formalized his 20-year prison sentence, part of a predetermined agreement with the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office. More than three years of time served and conduct credit will be shaved off of Payopay’s prison sentence.

Prior to the sentencing, Assistant District Attorney Conor McCormick said that his office needed to balance the seriousness of Payopay’s crimes with his near-immediate signs of remorse. Defense attorney Joe Ziebron said that attorneys in the case had long been working toward a negotiated resolution. In July, Payopay’s sentencing hearing was delayed while he concluded his high school diploma classes, according to court documents.

Guy urged Payopay, a previously convicted felon with multiple past criminal convictions, to continue making use of available services while serving his prison term, “because your past doesn’t have to define you, and I hope that you get help.”

According to police, Payopay and a woman were passed out in an SUV on the side of Highway 17 late on Jan. 25, 2022, near the Summit area. When a California Highway Patrol officer approached the vehicle, Payopay urged the driver to flee, headed south, exiting onto Granite Creek Road in Scotts Valley. As officers pursued the SUV into a residential area, Payopay was said to have shot his rifle three or four times toward officers, according to preliminary hearing testimony last year. Officers called off their pursuit and no one was injured in the shooting, however. Police later located the SUV, empty and abandoned, and Payopay and the driver, separately on foot.

Driver Alexandria Luevanos, of Berkeley, pleaded no contest to a single felony charge of evading police in a plea deal and was sentenced March 23 to two years in prison.