Willmar man gets four years in prison for drugs

WILLMAR - Jose Juan Rodriguez, 27, of Willmar, was sentenced Thursday to 48 months in prison and a $3,000 fine on a second-degree drug possession charge for methamphetamine and marijuana found in February in a Willmar residence.
As part of his sentence handed down in Kandiyohi County District Court, Rodriguez was given credit for 48 days already served in custody and ordered to pay the fine with prison earnings.
Rodriguez was one of four people charged in the case. Isabel Hernandez, 26, of Willmar, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, which was stayed, five years of probation and a $1,000 fine on felony charge of storing drug paraphernalia in the presence of children.
Martin Hernandez, 30, of Willmar, was sentenced to 13 months in prison, which was stayed, five years of probation, 100 days in jail and a $1,500 fine on a felony charge for storing meth paraphernalia.
Andrea Nicole Hernandez, 25, of Willmar, has pleaded guilty to a felony charge for storing meth paraphernalia and will be sentenced July 29.
The charges were filed after officers from the Willmar Police Department and agents from the CEE-VI drug and gang task force executed a search warrant Feb. 4 at a home in the 1700 block of Seventh Avenue Southeast in Willmar.
The four adults lived at the home along with four children from ages 3 to 9, according to the court file. The search occurred while the children were at school, and they were placed in the custody of Kandiyohi County Family Services.
The search yielded 14 grams of methamphetamine and 11.8 grams of marijuana. Also found were drug paraphernalia, small baggies, a digital scale and a sheet detailing payments and debts related to drug sales.
The defendants told investigators that they smoked meth in the house and the attached garage and that Rodriguez had been selling meth and marijuana from the house.