Tesla thief pleads guilty to five felonies in federal court

ONOGHUE Vermont News & Media correspondent

RUTLAND - A Chittenden County man, who made international news when he stole five Teslas valued at over $600,000 in 2018 and 2019, was sentenced in federal court in Rutland on Wednesday to 48 months in prison.

Michael A. Gonzalez, 34, fraudulently obtained the five Teslas valued at about $607,000 from car dealerships in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Florida and had them brought across state lines to Vermont in 2018 and 2019.

One Tesla was destroyed during a suspicious fire after he drove it onto a frozen portion of Shelburne Bay on Lake Champlain in February 2019, the U.S. Secret Service has said. Gonzalez torched the luxury car when he was unable to sell it, records show. An insurance claim to GEICO was denied when Gonzalez failed to appear - twice - to give his statement under oath, records show.

Gonzalez was scheduled for a jury trial earlier this year, but he opted to plead guilty to all five felony counts without negotiating a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney's Office. Each charge carried a possible 10-year prison sentence.

Chief Federal Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford told Gonzalez during the sentencing that once he is discharged from prison he will be under three years of supervised release conditions monitored by the U.S. Probation Office.

Crawford ordered Gonzalez to pay $493,044 in the remaining restitution to Tesla. The judge also ordered Gonzalez to forfeit $231,900 to the government for the gross proceeds Gonzalez received from selling three of the stolen cars.

Gonzalez will get credit for about 12 months he has been detained since violating his release conditions by testing positive at least four times for cocaine between March and August 2022 and never telling his probation about five interactions with police in 2022, records show.

Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael P. Drescher maintained, in court papers, that the Federal Sentencing Guidelines made clear that a prison term of at least 51 months was proper.

Defense lawyer Chandler Matson countered that he thought a time served sentence - since his detention in October 2022 - was proper.

Drescher said Tesla was not the only victim of Gonzalez's crimes. He had placed others in danger, including Shelburne Volunteer Fire Department, when they had to go out onto the ice to battle the car fire, Drescher said. He added it was fortunate for the environment that the Telsa did not go through the ice.