Man who carjacked 40 minutes after no-bail release gets 5 years

A Bay Area man who committed a violent carjack less than an hour after he was released from jail under a statewide zero bail schedule has been sentenced to five years in federal prison.

Rocky Lee Music, 33, pleaded guilty to one count of carjacking Tuesday as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors. He was initially facing up to 15 years in prison for the Aug. 19, 2020 attack but received the lesser sentence as part of the deal.

In charging documents the prosecutors explained the carjacking was a federal crime because "Music did use force intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to take a motor vehicle that had been transported in interstate or foreign commerce by violence or intimidation."

Music's case drew national attention because of his brazen attack and because it took center stage in a contentious public safety debate around the California Judicial Council's statewide zero bail schedule. The bail schedule required courts in all 58 counties to release virtually all defendants pretrial, aside from a few enumerated exceptions, to clear space in jails for social distancing.

Throughout the state, city, county and federal prosecutors opposed it, coining the term "Zero Bail Fail" while highlighting cases of offenders committing new crimes after being released while awaiting trial.

"Sweeping criminal releases are imposing a terrible strain on professional law enforcement who are being required to arrest some offenders again and again," former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California David L. Anderson recently told the Daily Journal.

Prosecutors say Music admitted in his plea agreement that he violently carjacked a Toyota Prius in the town of Dublin less than an hour after he was released from Santa Rita Jail on zero bail. Prosecutors say he was arrested on other vehicle theft charges just 12 hours before he was released.

The crime unfolded when, just 40 minutes after being released, Music opened the door of a parked vehicle, punched the driver, pulled him out of the car while continuing to punch him in the head and forced his way into the driver's seat. He then drove away with the victim hanging on the driver's door.

After he fled, Music admitted that he drove to San Ramon and tried to steal another car, but that driver got away. He was arrested shortly afterward.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers handed down the five-year sentence, along with a three-year probation period of supervised release.