Pecos man sentenced to 13 years for meth trafficking in plea deal
Shayne Schneider, 32, of Pecos was sentenced Monday to 13 years in prison for trafficking methamphetamine as part of a plea deal that will settle two pending drug charges against him in Santa Fe County.
The conviction stems from two incidents, according to prosecutors.
The first took place in September 2015, when police responded to the screams of a woman coming from a Santa Fe apartment complex. They found Schneider standing over her, with her pants half off. He gave police a false name and was found in possession of 89 tablets of the painkiller oxycodone, for which he did not have a prescription, and a gun with the serial number sanded off.
Assistant District Attorney Estevan Sanchez said the second incident occurred less than six months later in January 2016, when Schneider sold methamphetamine to an undercover narcotics officer.
Schneider was sentenced to 9 years for trafficking methamphetamine in a separate case in Las Vegas District Court in May. The sentences are scheduled to run concurrently, and First District Judge T. Glenn Ellington suspended three years of Schneider’s 13-year sentence in the Santa Fe cases so, with credit for time served, he’ll likely spend five or six years in prison.
According to online court and jail records, Schneider’s criminal history goes back to at least 2002 when he was convicted of battery on a school employee. He also has convictions for child abuse in 2008 and burglary in 2010.
His defense attorney Kristen Dickey told Ellington that Schneider has operated his own landscaping business for 10 years but is a drug addict, which is why he continues to rack up charges. Schneider, who has three children under the age of 10, told the judge Monday he intends to use his time in prison to get drug treatment and earn the equivalent of a high school diploma.
When asked if he wanted to address the court before being sentenced Monday, a tearful Schneider asked the judge to keep his wife and children in mind when determining his sentence.
Judge Ellington replied that he couldn’t imagine what it must be like for Schneider’s children to have a father with such a severe drug problem, adding that it might be “more of a break” for Schneider’s kids if he were locked up so they wouldn’t have to wonder who was coming home each night, a responsible father, or “a monster.”
The judge’s commentary didn’t sit well with Nicole Valencia, Schneider’s wife of five years and mother of his two youngest children. Valencia said she found the comments “offensive” and said Schneider’s children miss him greatly.
“A judge has no right to say something like that,” she said, adding that she wanted to rebut the judge’s comments in court but couldn’t afford to draw contempt of court charges upon herself.
Valencia said her husband used to make a living off his landscaping business but after falling in with a bad crowd started dealing drugs and found it to be more lucrative. She said he’d been to inpatient treatment programs before but always relapsed upon being released because he falls back in with the same crowd and needs a way to make money to help support the family.