(KRON) — A man who boasted to police that he lives an “ugly life,” and he enjoys it, was sentenced to serve over two decades in prison for a DUI crash, prosecutors said Monday.

Sonoma County District Attorney Carla Rodriguez said, “This defendant has lived his entire adult life committing serious criminal offenses, and simply put, the community is safer with him incarcerated.”

Jose Angel Mendez Torres, 36, of Watsonville, was handed a maximum prison sentence on Friday by Judge Mark Urioste. He was sentenced to serve more than 24 years in state prison.

During Torres’ trial in June, a jury found the felon guilty of robbery, commercial burglary, Driving Under the Influence of a drug causing great bodily injury, fleeing a police officer, and possession of tear gas. Torres had previously been convicted of a prior “strike” offense.

Prosecutors said Torres went on a two-day crime spree in Sonoma County in August of 2022. He entered a 76 gas station and violently ripped a cash register from the store cashier. Video surveillance of the incident was used by law enforcement to identify Torres as a suspect.

The next day, Torres was pulled over by officers in Rohnert Park for vehicle code violations.

“He gave law enforcement a false name, and when questioned further about his identity, he fled. A brief pursuit occurred, which resulted in a head-on collision with a motorist in the opposite lane of travel,” prosecutors wrote.

Torres fled from the crash scene and hid in a nearby creek. When officers found him in the creek, they discovered that he was high on methamphetamine and possessed thousands of dollars in stolen cash, prosecutors said.

“Following the collision, the defendant told officers that he lives an ‘ugly life,’ and that he ‘likes it,'” according to the District Attorney’s Office.

The head-on crash victim survived. But his injuries “had a significant impact on the victim’s life, causing him a great deal of pain, an inability to go to work or participate in any of his normal activities,” prosecutors wrote.