Man charged in 2 drug cases pleads guilty in plea deal
Admitting that he was in possession of methamphetamine at the time he was arrested, Steven Phillip Brown pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges in two plea agreements that require he be sentenced to prison.
Appearing with his attorney, Ray Hanna of the Yuma County Public Defender’s Office, Brown replied “guilty” when asked by Superior Court Judge David Haws how he pleaded to two separate unrelated charges of attempted possession of dangerous drugs.
In return for his guilty plea, 15 other felony drugrelated charges against Brown, who remains in custody at the Yuma County jail on a combined $50,000 bond, were dismissed.
During the hearing Haws explained to Brown that one of the plea agreements stipulates that he be sentenced to the presumptive prison sentence of 1-1/2 years, while the other stipulates he be sentenced to 3-1/2 years in prison, and that it was to run concurrent with any sentence he receives in any other case.
Sentencing has been scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 6 before Haws.
Brown was re-arrested the evening of Sept. 9, less than half an hour after posting bail in a separate, unrelated case.
Brown, along with his wife Crystal, were arrested at 7:10 p.m. after Yuma County Sheriff’s Office deputies conducted a traffic stop on their vehicle at Giss Parkway and Main Street for a traffic violation.
During the course of the traffic stop, deputies requested the assistance of a K-9. With the assistance of YCSO K-9 Jax, deputies searched the vehicle and allegedly found quantities of methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana.
Brown had just been released from Yuma County jail at about 6:50 p.m. after his wife posted a $5,000 bond. He had been arrested earlier the same day at the Port of Entry in San Luis on a warrant as he was coming back into the country. The warrant was also for drugrelated offenses.
In July, Brown was arrested in connection to the fatal shooting death of 28-year-old Perla Patton Sanchez, of Phoenix, in a parking lot near the Super 8 Motel located in the 1600 block of Riley Avenue. No charges were ever filed against Brown, who claimed the shooting was in self-defense.