n Angel Cesar Garcia, 29, of Pennock, was found guilty Tuesday in a jury trial of a felony for fleeing a peace officer and a petty misdemeanor stop sign violation.
The jury found Garcia not guilty of aiding an offender to avoid arrest for driving the car in which Lazaro Soliz III was arrested on Aug. 18.
Garcia will be sentenced on April 10.
The charges were filed after Kandiyohi County sheriff's deputies were called around 10 p.m. Aug. 18 to Kandiyohi where Soliz was supposed to be. Officers knew he had multiple felony warrants and they pursued a car for a short chase. When ordered to stop, the passenger attempted to exit the vehicle but was detained by officers, arrested and transported to county jail.
Garcia told officers Soliz told him not to stop the car because there were warrants for his arrest, but he stopped anyway.
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Soliz, 41, of Willmar, was sentenced in January to 104 months -- eight years and eight months -- in prison for selling methamphetamine and cocaine, tampering with witnesses to his drug charges and assaulting a man who confronted him for abusing a woman.
- Gabriel James Rodriguez, 20, of Willmar, pleaded guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor charge of domestic assault.
As part of a plea agreement, a felony charge for domestic assault by strangulation, a gross misdemeanor for interfering with a 911 call and another misdemeanor for domestic assault will be dismissed. He will be sentenced March 25.
The charges were filed after Willmar police were called around 4:45 a.m. Dec. 2 to a home in northwest Willmar to respond to an assault. A woman there told police that Rodriguez and another man were at the home cutting their hair when Rodriguez came to a bedroom and began swearing and punching her. She said he choked her multiple times and that she struggled to breathe. He also damaged the home by throwing items around. She said she called out to a child to get the phone so that she could call 911, but that he grabbed it from her and broke it. Police found the broken phone on the floor. She then told the child to get a cell phone, but he took it from her. She sent the child to a neighbors' home twice to find someone to call police.
The responding officers observed bruises, red marks, swelling and puffiness on her face and neck and numerous items broken in the home. The woman also told officers she had bruises on her arms from a previous attack a few days before.
