Salinas man sentenced to 17 years for armed home robbery

Michael Rice of Salinas was sentenced to 17 years in prison yesterday after entering a no contest plea.

Rice is the brother of Tami Huntsman, who is serving a life sentence for the murder and torture of two children.

He was accused of committing an armed home invasion robbery.

He will also be serving 16 months for drug use and one year for domestic violence.

In October of last year, Rice, his son and another man broke into a woman’s house, put a gun to her head and threatened to shoot if she did not pay them $400 a month. While there, they stole her cell phone.

When they were running away, he pointed a gun at several witnesses and threatened to shoot them if they called 911.

Witnesses still called 911, and Rice was arrested.

He is a high ranking gang member.

Another brother, Wayne Huntsman, is serving 20 years for starting a major fire in the Sierra Nevada mountains that destroyed 80 structures in 2014.