GALESBURG: A Knox County Judge sentenced a Tijuana woman to four years in prison Wednesday for smuggling cocaine from California to Galesburg late last year.
Haydee G. Gonzales, 25, pleaded guilty to an amended coke possession charge stemming from a December drug interdiction at the Amtrak train depot, 225 S. Seminary St., and one count of misdemeanor battery from a 2015 incident.
The coke charge was amended down from possession of 400-900 grams to possession of 15-100 grams, reducing the maximum possible sentence from 30 years in prison to 15 years.
Charges of manufacturing/delivery of more than 900 grams of cocaine, possession of more than 900 grams of cocaine, manufacturing/delivery of 400-900 grams of cocaine and aggravated battery were dropped pursuant to the plea.
In response to a question from Judge Scott Shipplett, Assistant State’s Attorney Elisa Nelson said Gonzales had previously been convicted of a federal cocaine possession charge and served four years in prison.
Gonzales was one of two Tijuana women arrested in December, the other being Eliva Moreno-Valdez, 52. According to Nelson, the duo had been traveling from Los Angeles, California to Galesburg via Amtrak. When the two women departed the train, officers stopped them for a security check. Gonzales consented to a search and a quantity of cocaine was found on her person.
Valdez, who does not speak English, was granted a motion to suppress evidence during a May 20 court appearance after her attorney, Chief Public Defender Dave Hansen, argued that she did not understand officers’ questioning and could not consent to a search.
Her case remains open for the time being.
In addition to Gonzeles’s four-year prison sentence, she was ordered to pay the $10,000 street value of the seized cocaine.
