Series of crimes already by 23 years old

Isaiah Michael Dyer, 23, was sentenced this week to nine years prison.

Dyer was first arrested by the San Diego County Sheriff the same year he turned 18, that was on New Year’s Eve in 2016, he was accused of public intoxication.

In local jail records, Isaiah Michael Dyer was described as 5 feet 11 inches tall and 180 pounds.

Dyer was arrested in April of 2019, in San Marcos, in that case he was charged with battery and false imprisonment of his girlfriend and resisting arrest. He was 20 years old when he was booked into custody by the San Diego County Sheriff. Dyer bailed out, and appeared for one court hearing the following week.

But then Dyer did not appear for his following court hearings, instead he went on a crime spree during the summer of 2019 and committed multiple felonies using the same semi-automatic pistol.

On August 12, 2019 there was a shooting in Carlsbad, in which Dyer and two others (who pleaded guilty separately) set up a drug deal “ripoff.” Dyer reportedly shot the victim in his leg, as the victim was getting out of his car, with bystanders and witnesses nearby. Dyer admitted to this shooting in a plea deal later. “He might claim that was an accident, but he brought the gun, he had it out, and he pointed it, or had it in a position where it could go off,” a prosecutor told a judge. One week before this shooting, Dyer had just turned 21 years old.

(This gunshot victim is said to be “one hundred percent” fully recovered now, according to defense attorney Julia Jara, who spoke at Dyer’s sentencing more than two years later.)

Two days later, August 14, 2019, Dyer was involved in another armed robbery, in San Diego, using the same gun. In that crime, “The victim was just trying to sell his Rolex,” the prosecutor said, “During that incident, Mister Dyer pointed the gun at him, but thankfully didn’t shoot him.”

One week after that armed robbery, on August 21, 2019, Dyer was arrested by Federal officers; he and another man were accused of smuggling illegal aliens or immigrants. The same pistol used by Dyer in earlier crimes was found in the car at that time. “He was picked up near the border, by Border Patrol, for smuggling undocumented individuals,” the prosecutor said. “He went on quite a crime spree, during 2019.”

Dyer acquired three different state criminal cases while he was in custody; the San Diego County DA filed those cases separately, as information came in, according to prosecutor Joshua Brisbane. Dyer was taken into local custody from federal custody in January of 2020.

After he was in custody more than two years, in late 2021, Dyer made a plea deal. He admitted felony robbery and assault on victim with a semi-automatic firearm, according to prosecutor Brisbane. In that deal, Dyer agreed to be sentenced anywhere from 7 to 14 years prison.

This week, on January 6, 2022, Judge James Simmons Jr. heard from the defendant before he announced sentence.

Defense attorney Julia Jara pointed out that his mother and father and sisters and wife sent letters to the judge, and they came to court to support Dyer. The girlfriend Dyer previously “imprisoned” became his wife, and they had a child, Jara told the judge. “They are a good support system for him.”

Jara said that at the time of the crimes, Dyer was living in an apartment with many other young adults, and he was the only one with a job, and the other persons “had a lot of history in the criminal justice system.” Although they were all young men of the same age, “one had four strike convictions.”

Isaiah Michael Dyer, who is now 23, read a written statement to the judge. He apologized to the person he shot, “I sincerely repent for my sins to Mister (Victim),” and he thanked his family “for not turning their back on me.” He said “my character has been tarnished,” and he wanted to mold himself into a model citizen, and he cried when he told his parents, “I hope I can be the man you raised me to be.”

The judge told Dyer: You will come out of prison with two strike priors, it will be hard for you to find a job….It’s not going to be easy for you….Ten or fifteen years from now, we hope to be hearing good things about you…. This is a chapter in your story, it is not the end of your story…. I hope you will be the author of the rest of your story.… Don’t let anybody else dictate how the rest of your story will go.

Dyer was given a total term of nine years, with 970 days of custody credits so far. The judge used his discretion and did not apply an additional 10 years for intentional use of firearm. The federal immigrant-smuggling case will be adjudicated separately.

The defense attorney told the judge that Dyer “wants to give his mom and his wife a hug goodbye.” But judge Simmons explained that would be a security problem for the bailiff, and then revealed that someone “recently” tried to run out of the courtroom during a “hug” and so the hug request was denied.