Julio Sanchez

Detective Julio Sanchez is assigned to the LAPD's Major Crimes Division on The Closer and Major Crimes.

Before being assigned to the Major Crimes Division, Sanchez worked at the LAPD's Gang Intelligence Unit. As such, he is the unit's go-to guy for information about local gangs. He is also an expert on weapons and is seen to be the division's designated marksman.

In the Major Crimes series finale, “By Any Means, Part 4”, Julio accepted a promotion to Lieutenant and transferred to the Criminal Intelligence Division.

Character Information

Sanchez is known by the team as one of the most compassionate out of the group. He came back to work even after he was shot not too long before. He also has the tendency to interrogate suspects with physical force and anger, which has actually helped the unit solve crimes more often than not. Sanchez is well liked by his colleagues in spite of his aggressive interrogation tactics.

As of the start of The Closer, he had been a widower for two years, but has never taken off his wedding ring. He had a younger brother, Oscar, who was killed in "Sudden Death" as collateral damage in a gang conflict.

In “Reloaded”, Julio was the first person to realize that the group of robbers they were chasing had military backgrounds. His suspicions first arose when he realized that the robbers only shot at unoccupied vehicles, even though they had fully automatic weapons and were cornered by the LAPD. When Major Crimes received info that the suspects' fingerprints were classified because of the weapons they were using, Sanchez stated that the weapons were most likely stolen from a military base and the robbers were veterans. He further emphasized his point by referencing the level of coordination and skill the robbers had, as well as one of them returning to the scene of the crime to shoot a captured robber in the head from over a block away with a .40 caliber handgun.

In “Risk Assessment”, Rusty Beck asks him why he became a cop along with the rest of the squad. Julio explains that as a kid, his cat was murdered and he wanted to catch the guys who did it and send them to jail. He did eventually catch the guys for attempted murder and rape charges and as they were on their third strike, they went to prison for life. Julio is shown to be greatly pleased with this.

In “Flight Risk”, Lt Provenza gave Julio the task of leading and coordinating the search for the two missing children. The search is eventually successful, but unfortunately they are too late to save them. This greatly affects Julio, which nearly causes Julio to assault the person responsible for their deaths. When the suspect was being interrogated by Lt. Flynn and Det. Sykes, Julio and Lt. Tao located the vehicle used to kill the children in the LAPD's parking garage, prompting Julio to rush back upstairs and barge into the interrogation room, flipping the interrogation room table and forcing the suspect to back into a corner. At this point, Capt. Raydor and Lt. Tao had also entered the room and they were able to calm him down enough to escort him out of the room. Later, Chief Taylor could be seen talking with Julio about how they are professionals and they should be able to control their emotions in those sort of situations but he did not receive any official reprimands.

In “Personal Day”, a man named Dante Gomez who Julio sent to prison for 20 years is paroled after 17 years. Dante approaches Julio after being paroled and shows no hard feelings towards Julio, actually being thankful for his actions instead. To Julio's surprise, Dante, who originally confessed to the murder, now insists that he's innocent and asks for Julio's help in catching the real killer, providing him with an alibi of committing an armed robbery 26 miles away at the time of the murder. Julio reluctantly informs Captain Raydor due to the rules and is unenthusiastic about investigating it. Dante is later murdered and Julio is left horrified when it turns out Dante was telling the truth about the robbery. He had taken a deal to protect his best friend and accomplice in the robbery who would have gone to jail for life if he'd confessed to the robbery instead of the murder. The squad is able to identify the witness in the first murder as the killer of both and Julio informs Dante's grandmother of her grandson's innocence as Dante's reason for coming forward with the truth was his grandmother was dying and he didn't want her to die thinking he was a murderer. Feeling remorse for putting an innocent man away for 17 years and not helping him when he was asked to, Julio re-opens the murder investigations into Dante's father and uncle on his own time to try to bring his grandmother closure on those cases as well.

During “Internal Affairs”, Julio is framed for the murder of his mother's nurse who had been stealing from her. While he was ultimately cleared of all charges, he was forced to go to anger management courses as a result of his aggressive interrogation tactics being discovered by FID. He also moved back in with his mother so she would have the support she needed. It was also noted in this episode that Julio has an older brother named Alonso who is currently in prison for selling drugs.

It was revealed during “A Rose Is a Rose” that during the the summer break between Season 3 and Season 4, he had been suspended for five months without pay for his beating of Markos Christakis. After his return, Flynn is distant from him at first but Julio is shown to have a better reign on his temper. In “Snitch”, Julio apparently loses his temper with a suspect and explodes at him, but then nods at the camera, showing it was an act to the pleasure of the rest of the squad.

At the end of “Sorry I Missed You”, after sympathizing with a suspect who murdered a doctor he blamed for his daughter's suicide, he explains to the squad the source of his anger problems: years before he was married to a woman who had a seizure disorder. The doctors said it was safe for her to go off her medication and she got pregnant with their first child, a girl, and while driving to the grocery store, she had a seizure and a car accident. It took her four days to die in the hospital, and he lost both his wife and unborn child. Julio's comments to the suspect indicated he may have tried to sue the doctor for malpractice but was told that "these things just happen." The deaths of his wife and daughter due to what he believes to be doctor incompetence left him with a great anger that he can't get over and let go. His revelation elects great sympathy from the squad and he's fully accepted back. He had been considering leaving the division due to the distance of his co-workers, particularly Flynn who makes an overt gesture of acceptance after his story and they give him warm welcomes after which he shows no intention of wanting to leave anymore.

In “Four of a Kind” and “Reality Check”, Julio is haunted by the memory of his wife's death after visiting the hospital where she died and encountering a murder case where the victim died in a similar manner to his wife. After explaining to the victim's husband how she died, Julio appears to realize that he has survivor's guilt in his wife Maria's death, guilt that leaves him wondering what he could've done to save her. Julio expresses the hope that the realization will help him to move on.

In “Hindsight, Part 4”, after discussing with Stephanie Dunn the idea of holding someone responsible for their respective spouses deaths, Julio visited Michael Foster the doctor he blamed for his wife's death in order to finally get answers. During the visit, a shocked Julio learns that Maria took herself off of the medication against Doctor Foster's recommendation. Doctor Foster is able to provide Julio with proof of his story, leaving Julio distraught that Maria lied to him rather than admitting what she had actually done.

Following his visit with Doctor Foster, Julio gains closure in his wife's death. Getting closure appears to finally give Julio a sense of peace in his life. Subsequently he is seen attempting to date without success and has a much calmer personality.

After learning about the failures of the foster care system in “Present Tense”, Julio begins seeking to become a foster parent to help children in need.

During the investigation into a gruesome murder during “Cashed Out”, Julio's application to become a foster parent is jeopardized after the suspect, who was running from him and Lt. Provenza, took a hostage in a public park and Julio decided to confront him unarmed. This eventually resulted in the suspects peaceful apprehension and police commission inquiry whether Julio's actions in the situation qualified him to receive the LAPD's Medal for Valor.

LAPD's Medal of Valor

The Medal for Valor is the LAPD's highest law enforcement medal awarded to officers and it is usually awarded for acts of extraordinary bravery or heroism performed in the line of duty when the officer is in extreme and life-threatening personal risk. When Julio was seen in his uniform in “By Any Means, Part 1”, the Medal of Valor could be seen on his uniform.

This incident also led the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to start an inquiry whether Julio would be a unsuitable foster parent because of his temper and that he has been shot three times, raising concerns that he would have a death wish. He has also fired his weapon more than anyone else from the division.

In “Family Law”, Julio was given an emergency placement of an 8-year-old Mark Jarvis by DCFS to give them time to locate his mother. This made Sanchez' application to become a foster parent go to approval to the county and it made him part of the program, making him eligible for long term placement. Mark's mother is later revealed to have been murdered by the Zyklon Brotherhood. While Mark had demonstrated strong bigoted behavior towards Hispanics (including calling immigration to try to report his foster father and Julio's mother as well as making very racist statements), Julio reports that he changes after his mother, actually an informant against the people he learned his attitudes from, was proven to have been killed by them. Mark is implied to have become a long-term placement, and Julio tries to get home to read to him at bedtime, something he indicates that they have both grown to enjoy. In “White Lies, Part 3”, Mark and Julio are shown to have deeply bonded but DCFS locates his grandparents which means Mark will be removed from Julio's custody. Both Mark and Julio are devastated by the news and Mark, after apologizing for his previous racist statements to both Julio and Cynthia, leaves Julio his favorite book to remember him by while he takes a bike helmet Julio bought him to do the same.

In “Quid Pro Quo”, Mark returns to Julio after his grandfather has a stroke and his grandmother was with him in the hospital. Julio is forced to call DCFS as Mark told him that he had been alone for days and he was running out of food. In “Dead Drop”, Julio still has custody of Mark and Mark's grandmother, recognizing her inability to take care of him, transfers guardianship of Mark to Julio permanently. Julio is granted temporary guardianship until a judge can confirm the guardianship about a week later in “Bad Blood”. After celebrating by taking Mark to play mini-golf, Mark asks to call Julio "dad" now. As Mark is his legal ward, not his son, Julio instead has them adopt the nicknames pato and patito, "duck" and "duckling" in Spanish.

In “Sanctuary City, Part 1” its revealed that Julio's mother has died and he is on bereavement leave. As a result, Sharon has Buzz, now a Reserve Detective, fill in for Julio in an investigation.

In “Sanctuary City, Part 3”, Julio returns from bereavement leave five days early, stating he was bothered watching the case on the news with Mark asking him if any more boys are getting kidnapped from St. Joseph's, telling Julio that he's scared to go back to school. When Julio came back, Buzz was seen removing his reserve detective gear and going back to his normal role, looking noticeably disappointed. Immediately after resuming work, Julio joined the rest of MCD in conducting a federal compliance check with the FBI to the house of Marvin Garret. He was also involved in the raid on Marvin Garret's "white-pride clubhouse".

In “Sanctuary City, Part 4”, after the collapse of Commander Raydor, Julio could be seen watching over her when she regained consciousness. After Lt. Provenza was placed in temporary command of MCD, he ordered the FBI to leave the Major Crimes squad room, with Julio telling them "you don't know me, but believe this, if the Lieutenant wants you lying sons of bitches out of here, that's what will happen." Despite having previously gained a calmer demeanor, Julio is much more aggressive and closer to "Scary Sanchez" than he has been in a long time. However, Julio doesn't take it too far as he would have in the past and calms down immediately once reprimanded suggesting that the stress of the situation brought out some bad habits.

In “Sanctuary City, Part 5”, Julio takes part in Sharon and Andy's wedding. Mark Jarvis, still Julio's ward, acts as a ring bearer in the wedding alongside Rusty. During the ceremony, Julio can be seen sharing a smile with Mark.

In “Conspiracy Theory, Part 3”, Julio reached out to Detective Linda Chavez, a "friend" of his in the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's (LVMPD) Sex Crimes Unit, to find out more information of a possible rape victim in Las Vegas. The two obviously have shared intimate moments at some point as she called Julio a "dirty dog", stating that even though "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas", Julio shouldn't have left without waking her up. It's not stated when this occurred but it seems like Julio has resumed dating despite his earlier unsuccessful efforts. The victim was revealed to have been arrested by LVMPD for felony drug possession and at first, they did not want to hand her over to the LAPD. After Chief Mason informed her that LAPD would pay for the transport, Detective Chaves personally escorted her to LA and to the PAB, over the silent objections from Julio, suggesting he would not want to see her. LVMPD eventually agreed to drop the drug charges in Nevada in order to get the victim to cooperate in the rape investigation, but Chavez told Julio that he would owe her a dinner date because of it.

In “Conspiracy Theory, Part 4”, Julio told Sharon that he had something to discuss with her before she left for her leave of absence but unfortunately he never had the chance as she had a fatal heart failure at the end of the episode. Julio performed CPR on her and waited with the rest of MCD at the hospital to hear how she is doing and he was obviously grief-stricken to hear of her death, along with every other MCD detective.

In “By Any Means, Part 3”, Julio helps to identify Stroh's accomplice Dylan Baxter. During the episode he mentions seeking a new home closer to Mark's school while Leo Mason discusses an offer with Julio. At the end of the episode, Tao reveals that Mason has offered Julio a promotion to the rank of Lieutenant with an assignment in the Criminal Intelligence Division. Tao explains that working homicides is hard on Julio as a single father and the promotion would give Julio the chance to take a less dangerous and more administrative job.

In “By Any Means, Part 4”, Julio helps with the takedown of Stroh's accomplice Dylan Baxter. After Stroh is killed, Julio decides to take the promotion and with Mark at his side, expresses his thanks for his time with Major Crimes and how much he will miss it. Appearing to know that Rusty killed Stroh and not Provenza, Julio tells the young man to keep up his sessions with Doctor Joe as Rusty will need them.

LtBarsGivenToSanchez — Lt.'s bars given to Sanchez

Officer-involved shootings

Norman Hall (“Citizen's Arrest”)
The Sniper (alongside Flynn, Tao and Sykes) (“Long Shot”)
Slider (fired at) (“Jane Doe 38”)
Hart Coulson (“Dead Zone”)

Personality

Julio is shown to care greatly about children, with cases involving children especially getting to Julio. During “Flight Risk”, a case with two murdered young children drove Julio both to extreme anger over the deaths and tears as well. Julio's emotional state clearly stemmed from the fact that it was young children who were harmed and it affected him very deeply.

For his tenure on the Closer and the first three seasons of Major Crimes, a major facet of Julio's personality was his volatile temper. Julio was known to explode at suspects and sometimes get physically violent. This got him into trouble multiple times, particularly in “Internal Affairs” when a Force Investigation Division investigator learned of Julio's anger issues while investigating Julio for potentially murdering his mother's caregiver in a rage. While Julio was cleared of the murder charges, he was still ordered to attend anger management classes for the issues the investigator discovered looking through Julio's past cases. Julio's brutal attack on Markos Christakis in “Special Master Part Two” got Julio suspended for five months without pay and forced into therapy. In one case, Provenza jokingly called this side of Julio "Scary Sanchez."

Following his return from his suspension, Julio had a better control over his temper. In one case, he appeared to lose his temper at a suspect, but the way he winked at the camera monitoring the interrogation made it clear he was simply faking his loss of temper. In “Sorry I Missed You”, Julio explained his anger problems stemmed from the death of his wife and unborn child in a car accident and his inability to get over the unfairness of it all and the fact that he blamed his wife's doctor for his loss. Julio stated at that point that he just didn't know how to get over his anger even after all those years.

After getting answers in “Hindsight, Part 4” to the death of his wife, Julio finally appeared to gain a sense of peace and began moving on with his life. Julio tried dating again, albeit without success and worked at becoming a father through the foster care system. In “Cashed Out”, during a dangerous situation where in the past Julio would've reacted violently, Julio instead used calm logic to successfully defuse the situation without anyone getting harmed, including the suspect. A detailed DCFS investigation into Julio due to his past behaviors occurring at the same time as the crisis in “Cashed Out” also found him fit to be a foster parent.

When Julio gained Mark Jarvis as his foster son, he quickly came to care for the boy despite his racist behaviors, much of which was directed at Julio himself due to Julio being Hispanic. During the investigation into the murder of Mark's mother and the Zyklon Brotherhood, Julio prioritized protecting Mark, asking to keep Mark out of finding Henry Coulson's home and warning Mark not to tell anyone about knowing Jordan Graff. Julio's bond with the boy quickly grew to that of a father-son relationship, resulting in both being devastated when Mark was taken to his grandparents. Following this, Julio kept a picture of Mark on his desk at work. When Mark returned, their bond continued to grow with Mark expressing a desire to call Julio "dad" which Julio didn't allow as Mark was legally his ward, not his son. In “By Any Means, Part 4”, Julio called Mark his son during his promotion ceremony while talking about all that Major Crimes had given him.

Despite having a calmer demeanor after getting closure, Julio sometimes channels "Scary Sanchez" as Provenza once called the angrier version of his personality. However, at these times, Julio has a much better control of his temper and its usually indicated that he's actually putting on a show for the suspect and is not as angry as he appears. In one such instance, Provenza notes that "Scary Sanchez" can be useful sometimes if they don't actually intend to arrest the suspect. The one major exception to this is in “Sanctuary City, Part 4” when Julio acts in a very aggressive manner throughout the case following Sharon's collapse. However, Julio doesn't take it too far as he would have in the past and calms down upon reprimand, suggesting that the stress of the situation and Sharon's collapse brought out bad habits in Julio. Subsequently in “Sanctuary City, Part 5”, Julio has resumed a much calmer demeanor. In “Conspiracy Theory, Part 2”, Sharon had Buzz order Julio to "turn up the heat" on a suspect and Julio was able to purposefully act like his old self, but was clearly in full control of himself the entire time and was acting for the suspect's benefit.

Trivia

In “Cleared History”, Julio is shown to keep a picture of his former foster son Mark Jarvis on his desk. He later managed to get permanent custody of the boy.
In “Sanctuary City, Part 3”, Julio states that he is third generation American.
In “By Any Means, Part 4”, Julio is implied to know that Rusty Beck killed Phillip Stroh, not Provenza. A deleted scene for the episode furthers this, showing Julio as suspicious of Provenza's story, particularly why he had Rusty's gun and how many times Stroh was shot.

Career Information

Julio has been seen wearing two different badges:
- During The Closer and Major Crimes, Season 1, his badge number was 39089;
- From Major Crimes, Season 2 onward, his badge number was 34150.
When in uniform, Julio wears four service stripes on his uniform. Each stripe represents five years of service in the LAPD, meaning he has served for 20-24 years. (“By Any Means, Part 1”)
When Julio was seen in uniform in “Repeat Offender”, we see that his rank is Detective II. Detective II is the first supervisory detective rank, comparable to Sergeant I. When Julio was seen again in uniform in “By Any Means, Part 1”, his rank was Detective III, comparable to Sergeant II. Detective III is a supervisory detective rank and the highest detective rank available. It is not known when he has received this promotion. In “By Any Means, Part 4”, he is officially promoted to Lieutenant.
Medals and service awards worn by Det. Sanchez: (“By Any Means, Part 1”)

Ribbon	Award name
	Medal of Valor The Medal of Valor is the highest law enforcement medal awarded to officers and it is awarded to officers for individual acts of extraordinary bravery or heroism performed in the line of duty at extreme and life-threatening personal risk.
	Purple Heart Awarded to officers who sustain a traumatic physical injury as a result of a suspect's actions during an on-duty tactical situation or who die in the line of duty as a direct result of a suspect's actions.
	Police Meritorious Service Medal The Police Meritorious Service Medal is awarded to employees who distinguish themselves by performing exceptional service in a duty of great responsibility or of critical importance to law enforcement, but to a lesser degree than required for the Police Distinguished Service Medal.
	Police Meritorious Unit Citation The Police Meritorious Unit Citation may be awarded to an organizational unit of the department for bravery or outstanding service by its members functioning as a team, but to a lesser degree than required for the Police Commission Unit Citation.
	Police Life Saving Medal The Police Life-Saving Medal is an award for bravery, usually awarded to officers for taking action in order to rescue or attempt the rescue of either a fellow officer or any person from imminent danger.
	Police Commission Distinguished Service Medal The Police Commission Distinguished Service Medal is awarded to officers who distinguish themselves by performing exceptional service to the LAPD or by performing in a stressful emergency situation with good judgement and bravery.
	Detective Service Ribbon 5 years of service in investigative units as a detective and/or lieutenant. Goof (see below)
	Shotgun Slug Ammunition Ribbon Given to any LAPD officer who is qualified to use slug ammunition in LAPD issued shotguns.
	Urban Police Rifle Ribbon Given to any LAPD officer who is qualified to use a Urban Police Rifle (usually a AR-15 variant chambered in .223)
	1994 Earthquake Ribbon Given to any LAPD officer who saw service during the 1994 Northridge earthquake from January 17 to January 18, 1994.
	Democratic National Convention Ribbon Given to any LAPD officer who saw service during the 2000 Democratic National Convention.
	Expert Marksmanship Badge Officers must score 380 out of a possible 400 points in the voluntary bonus qualification shoots (held every month). Officers who have qualified as Experts receive $32 in compensation in their bi-weekly paychecks.

Medal and service award goofs:
- Det. Sanchez could be seen wearing the standard Detective Service Ribbon on his uniform, meaning 5 years of service in investigative units as a detective and/or lieutenant even though he has served more than that. He would at least wear the Detective Service Ribbon with a Bronze Oak Leaf cluster but it would not be impossible for him to have the Silver Star either.

Ribbon	Award name
	Detective Service Ribbon (with Bronze Oak Leaf cluster) 10 years of service in investigative units as a detective and/or lieutenant.
	Detective Service Ribbon (with Silver Star) 15 years of service in investigative units as a detective and/or lieutenant.
	Detective Service Ribbon (with Gold Star) 20 years of service in investigative units as a detective and/or lieutenant.

Characters — The Closer
Brenda Leigh Johnson • Fritz Howard • Will Pope • Louie Provenza • Andy Flynn • Michael Tao • David Gabriel • Julio Sanchez • Irene Daniels • Buzz Watson • Russell Taylor • Sharon Raydor • Dr. Fernando Morales

Characters — Major Crimes
Sharon Raydor • Louie Provenza • Andy Flynn • Michael Tao • Julio Sanchez • Amy Sykes • Wes Nolan • Camila Paige • Buzz Watson • Rusty Beck • Russell Taylor • Leo Mason • Fritz Howard • Dr. Fernando Morales • Andrea Hobbs • Kendall