Fresno Traffic Stop Nets Felon Carrying Handgun, Large-Capacity Magazine

Randy Delgado Haro, 36, was sitting in a vehicle stopped for expired registration at the intersection of Mariposa Street and Waterman Avenue in central Fresno on Monday afternoon when Fresno Police Department officers found a loaded handgun, a large-capacity magazine, and prohibited ammunition packed inside a backpack he was carrying. The stop, at about 3:09 p.m. on March 23, took less than a minute to become a felony arrest.

Fresno police identified Haro as an active gang member. He was booked into the Fresno County Jail on four felony charges: being a felon in possession of a firearm, carrying a loaded firearm in public, possession of prohibited ammunition, and possession of a large-capacity magazine. His bail was set at $215,000.

Under California law, each of those counts carries independent criminal weight. Penal Code 29800 makes it a felony for anyone with a prior felony conviction to possess or control any firearm, punishable by up to three years in jail and a fine reaching $10,000. The large-capacity magazine charge falls under Penal Code 32310, which defines any ammunition-feeding device capable of holding more than 10 rounds as prohibited and carries felony penalties of up to three years in custody. California law also requires that civilians transporting firearms in vehicles keep them unloaded and locked in a container separate from any ammunition. A loaded weapon inside a backpack satisfies none of those conditions, and for a convicted felon, the legal exposure applies regardless of how the firearm is stored.

The Mariposa and Waterman arrest fits into a broader pattern the Fresno Police Department has documented. The department recovered 1,502 guns off the streets in 2025, the same 12-month stretch in which Fresno officers issued more than 40,000 traffic citations. The volume of those traffic stops creates repeated opportunities for officers to encounter weapons that would otherwise remain hidden. A registration sticker, expired by days or months, is the kind of infraction drivers routinely overlook; in this case, it was the entry point to a weapons case carrying a quarter-million dollars in bail.

If prosecuted and convicted on all four felony counts, Haro faces compounding sentences under California guidelines. The case now moves through the Fresno County court system.