— March 11, 2026
— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
Anderson Jorge Cruz, 28, has been convicted of an April 2018 killing in Allentown, according to Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin P. Holihan.
The victim was Cruz’s friend, 24-year-old Juan Alfredo Sanchez. Cruz shot Sanchez twice in the 300 block of Linden Street, according to Holihan’s statement.
After the shooting, Cruz did not call 911 or immediately flee, “but instead went to get his hair cut,” Holihan said.
Lehigh County Judge Robert L. Steinberg sentenced Cruz today to 10 to 20 years in state prison, the maximum allowable, for “voluntary manslaughter – unreasonable belief,” a felony. The unreasonable belief part means the suspect’s belief that the killing was justified was not reasonable.
After the killing, Cruz gave away the gun and sold the car. He moved to Massachusetts, where he was arrested in 2019 in a federal heroin and fentanyl investigation, Holihan said. The District Attorney said Cruz pleaded guilty to the drug charges and a homicide in Massachusetts.
Cruz was sent back to Pennsylvania in 2024 to face charges in the Sanchez killing.
Here’s the statement from District Attorney Holihan:
Lehigh Valley News Briefs 
shouldn’t he get life?
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His sentences will be consecutive so it might work out that way. This sentence was the maximum for the manslaughter charge. He also has the Massachusetts term to serve. That sentence wasn’t included in today’s press release.
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