Sentencing for Arizona women in ballot fraud case delayed
The Arizona attorney general’s office announced on Oct. 5, 2021 that Guillermina Fuentes was indicted for voting another person’s early ballot in the August 2020 primary election. She was charged with conspiracy, forgery and a ballot abuse count.
YUMA, Ariz. (AP) - Sentencing for two southwestern Arizona women who pleaded guilty to illegally collecting early voting ballots in the 2020 primary election was delayed on Thursday because one of their lawyers had a death in the family.
That means they will have to wait a month to see if they will do jail time, as the judge in the case has indicated is likely.
Prosecutors are seeking a one-year prison sentence for one of the women, Guillermina Fuentes, a school board member and former mayor in the border city of San Luis. Fuentes pleaded guilty to a felony violation of Arizona’s "ballot harvesting" law, which bars anyone but a person’s relative, housemate or caregiver from returning ballots for them.
Alma Juarez pleaded guilty to the same charge, but it was designated as a misdemeanor after she agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. She carried ballots Fuentes gave her into a polling place and dropped them off. Her agreement calls for a sentence of probation.
Prosecutors with the Arizona Attorney General’s office alleged in court papers that Fuentes ran a sophisticated operation using her status in Democratic politics in San Luis to persuade voters to let her gather and, in some cases, fill out their ballots.
But the crime she admitted in court last month does not involve filling out ballots or any broader efforts. The state’s sentencing recommendation memo makes no mention of that earlier allegation of a larger operation.
MORE: Prison sought for Arizona official in ballot harvesting case
The probation department is recommending that Fuentes also be sentenced to probation.
Both were set to appear before Yuma County Superior Court Judge Roger Nelson on Thursday. Nelson’s assistant has told attorneys in the case that he intends to sentence "them" to 30 days in jail.
They will now appear on Oct. 6 for a mitigation hearing, and Nelson said he would set a new sentencing hearing after that.
Lawyers for Fuentes plan to call several witnesses at that hearing in an effort to show she should not get jail time. The attorney for Juarez has filed a memo with the court that outlines his arguments for why she should not be jailed.
They noted that she is pregnant and that when Fuentes handed her the ballots she was "totally unaware," that what she was doing was illegal.
MORE: Arizona lawmakers hear from election conspiracy theorists
Juarez already has four children. Her oldest son, who was born in 1999, died of a heart attack this year due to a congenital heart defect, and she has two young children who are autistic that she cares for.
Lawyers for Fuentes had previously sought a delay because two witnesses she wanted to call during a pre-sentencing mitigation hearing were unavailable and one of her attorneys was unavailable, but Nelson refused. That decision was appealed, but the Arizona Court of Appeals declined to consider the case.
MORE: Records show coordinated Arizona ballot collection scheme
This week, a family member of Fuentes’ Yuma attorney died and funeral services are set for Thursday and Friday, prompting a new request to delay sentencing. Nelson will formally consider that request at Thursday’s hearing.
Since the plea Juarez entered required her to cooperate in the state prosecution of Fuentes, she is asking for her sentencing to be also delayed.