Man Sentenced For Carjacking Prior To San Ramon Arrest

EAST BAY, CA — An East Bay man was sentenced to five years in prison Tuesday for a violent Dublin carjacking in April that led to his arrest in San Ramon.

Rocky L. Music, 33, who was last known to live in Walnut Creek, pleaded guilty to a federal carjacking charge and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rodgers. He will begin serving his sentence immediately, followed by three years of supervised release, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California.

Music was sentenced in an April 19 carjacking and assault of a man at the Dublin-Pleasanton Bay Area Rapid Transit station 40 minutes after his release from Dublin's Santa Rita Jail in an earlier carjacking attempt, The Alameda County Sheriff's Office said. He was arrested in San Ramon after a Dublin Police Department K-9 officer stopped him.

Read more: Dublin Carjacking Follows Santa Rita Inmate's Release

Music admitted to opening the driver's door of an occupied Prius in the 5200 block of Dublin's Campus Drive, punching the driver and pulling him out of the car and repeatedly punching him on the head, prosecutors said in the statement. Music forced his way into the car and drove off as the victim clung to the driver's side door.

Music drove to San Ramon and approached a woman in a parked car, but she drove away, prosecutors said. Music has remained behind bars since his arrest in San Ramon that day.

San Ramon police also played a role in the case, prosecutors said.

Critics across the state and nation pointed to Music's arrest as an example of why inmates shouldn't be cited and released, even amid the coronavirus pandemic. Inmate advocates have maintained that jail conditions are unsafe and that COVID-19 could easily spread throughout the population.