Arizona women want sentencing in ballot fraud case delayed

YUMA, Ariz. (AP) — Two women from southwestern Arizona who pleaded guilty to illegally collecting voted early ballots in the 2020 primary election are seeking a delay in their scheduled sentencing in Yuma on Thursday because one of their lawyers had a death in the family.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Prosecutors with the Arizona Attorney General’s office allege 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.