Man Gets 230 Years in Prison

A Cypress man was sentenced Thursday to 230 years in prison for shooting at police officers during a wild late-night car chase in May that ended when police rammed his car.

James Allen Gamache, 33, was convicted in March of four counts of attempted murder and four counts of discharging a firearm.

Gamache’s girlfriend, 19-year-old Melissa Doran of Cypress, was convicted of the same charges. Doran, who faces up to four life sentences, is scheduled to be sentenced today. Doran maintains she did not fire any shots during the pursuit.

Officials said Gamache, identified as a white supremacist gang member, has a two-decade history of serious crime, from burglary to shooting a man in the mouth in 1989.

“He was a three-striker,” said Jerry Schaffer, an Orange County deputy district attorney. “This guy has to serve 85% of his sentence before he is eligible for parole. In other words, he’s not getting out.”

The duo earned the nickname “Bonnie and Clyde” for shooting at police during the dramatic chase, which concluded with Gamache kissing Doran, putting his hands in the air and surrendering to police.

The night of the chase, police had been searching for Gamache for allegedly stealing guns from a friend in Los Angeles.

Acting on an anonymous tip, Buena Park undercover police found Gamache and Doran at a cheap Buena Park motel, trying to sell the weapons.

During the subsequent chase, police followed the couple’s white sedan on the Riverside Freeway at speeds up to 100 mph.

At one point, when the wheel of Gamache’s sedan flew off the vehicle, he pulled off the freeway, hijacked another car at gunpoint, and continued his effort to elude police, until they rammed the car to stop it.