Three plead guilty to drug charges

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Three more people charged in the July 25 drug raid entered pleas of guilty this week.

Trials for Norberto Alejandro Aldana, 18, of Sleepy Eye and Cory Roger Schnurrer, 33, of New Ulm, were scheduled to start Thursday. They were facing first-degree controlled substance charges, a felony.

They agreed to plead guilty to those charges in exchange for lighter sentences. The maximum sentence for the crime is of 30 years in jail and a $1 million fine.

On Monday, Joshua Travis Sanchez, 23, of New Ulm, also pleaded guilty in Brown County District Court to the same offense.

The three men were charged as a result of Brown County's ongoing drug investigation that resulted in multiple arrests this summer. To date, 23 people either have pleaded guilty, been found guilty by a jury or received sentences or been sent to jail.

Aldana and Sanchez were accused of selling cocaine to a paid informant hired by the New Ulm Police Department to investigate narcotics usage this past summer.

According to court documents, Aldana sold $1,055 in cocaine to the informant in June. Sanchez sold $500 in cocaine to the informant on May 20, the criminal complaints said.

Schnurrer was the source for cocaine that Perish Amere Stanfield sold to the informant on June 6 and 7. That drug transaction totaled $1,175.

Sanchez was sentenced Monday to spend 72 months in a state prison and pay $1,108 in fines. Brown County District Court Judge John Rodenberg gave him credit for 181 days he already spent in jail.

Aldana and Schnurrer are awaiting sentencing hearings.

Public defender Robert Docherty of New Ulm represented Sanchez on Monday and Aldana on Thursday.

Attorney Jason Kohlmeier of Mankato, who represented Schnurrer on Thursday, said there were other factors in his client's decision besides less jail time. For instance, pleading guilty allows Schnurrer to enter the state's supervised work and treatment program after 11 months in jail, versus the three-year wait he would have if he had been convicted.