Julian Gutierrez, 33, was sentenced to five months of prison time and was released for time served.
State prosecutors reached a plea deal with a man arrested last summer after police found a marijuana grow operation at his Naknek home. Julian Gutierrez pleaded guilty to one felony count of fourth degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, and was sentenced to just five months in prison, which he has already served since his arrest. KDLG’s Dave Bendinger has more:
Audio Transcript
Last August, Anchorage-based WAANT investigators were led to the Lake Hood runway on a tip that a man was preparing to transport drugs to Bristol Bay. There they found Julian Gutierrez in possession of four grams of cocaine, brass knuckles, and an AK-47 assault rifle, preparing to board a Piper Saratoga bound for King Salmon.
Investigators said Gutierrez admitted to them that he was also growing marijuana at his Naknek home on Monsen Road.
That information was shared with Bristol Bay Borough Police, who took a search warrant to the home that same night and discovered 28 mature marijuana plants, along with seeds, fertilizer, plant lights and other commercial growing implements. A few days later, Gutierrez was arrested on three felony drug charges.
Gutierrez pleaded guilty Wednesday to one of those charges, with the other two dismissed as part of a deal reached with prosecutors. The Anchorage district attorney’s office also agreed to drop the felony drug and weapons charges they had filed for the bust at Lake Hood.
Gutierrez was sentenced to two years in prison, with 19 months suspended. That left five months of actual jail time, which he had already served since his August arrest.
Prosecutors, both in Dillingham and in Anchorage, say there were no problems with their case against Gutierrez, but Judge Patricia Douglass, who presided at Wednesday's hearing, was skeptical of the light terms. She told Gutierrez it seemed he had somehow “lucked out”.
In 2005, Gutierrez pled no contest to a felony drug charge stemming from an arrest in Kodiak the year before. That felony conviction was taken off his record after he completed five years of court supervised probation.
Judge Douglass told Gutierrez he now has two strikes against him, and recommended he find a new line of work.