KINGMAN – A local judge approved a plea agreement that he said was “entirely inappropriate” during a Tuesday sentencing hearing at the Mohave County courthouse in Kingman. Judge Billy Sipe said he only did so because attorneys provided him confidential information during a private meeting in his chambers before the hearing.
Neither Public Defender Jon Gillenwater, nor deputy county attorney Reid Weisberg would comment when asked if the judge was approving the deal because Jose Flores Del Angel, 37, was working with law enforcement authorities on drug matters.
Judge Sipe said he disliked the charge reduction and the four-year prison sentence stipulated in the deal for the illegal immigrant from Mexico who had been residing in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Jose Flores Del Angel, asked to be deported but Judge Sipe said he lacked authority to do so because he was not a federal immigration judge.
Weisberg said Department of Public Safety officers made contact with Del Angel during a November 15, 2018 traffic stop on Interstate 40, just outside of Kingman. He said officers confiscated 14 pounds of methamphetamine from the floorboard of the vehicle Del Angel was driving.
Del Angel pleaded guilty to attempted transportation of dangerous drugs for sale. Sipe said 14 pounds of methamphetamine is a significant quantity of drugs as he credited Del Angel for 299 days already spent in custody that will be subtracted from the four-year prison term.
