Gonzalez, 15, ran away from his Mesa, Arizona home on November 10, 2005. In June 2008, authorities discovered he was incarcerated in an Arizona state prison. He was arrested for burglary and assault in February 2006. He was only 15 years old at the time, but he told police he was 17 and that his last name was Gonzales. He was charged as an adult, and when he was sentenced in August of that year, authorities believed he was 18, so he was put in prison with adult inmates. He remained in prison for nearly two years without revealing the truth about himself, and committed eight prison offenses. His identity was only discovered after a police detective entered his name into the Department of Corrections database and found an inmate matching his description. Gonzalez then confessed the truth to a prison psychologist.

Gonzalez has been removed from the general prison population, but remains incarcerated as authorities try to determine what to do with him. They have started an investigation as to why his true identity was not discovered much earlier.