FAYETTEVILLE — Miguel Angel Osuna sold 3 ounces of marijuana to a confidential police informant last year. Now he’s headed to prison.
Osuna has been a legal resident of the U.S. for a decade but is not a citizen. The 21-year-old may be permanently deported to Mexico because of his felony criminal convictions, leaving behind a 4-month-old son, his fiancee and the home they recently bought together, according to his attorney, Scott Parks. Osuna graduated from Springdale schools in 2007 and has worked at a chicken plant since.
Police and prosecutors said Osuna sold marijuana to a confidential informant in Springdale on three occasions between July 20 and July 27. Each transaction involved selling an ounce of marijuana for $80. The deals went down at Osuna’s apartment.
The Washington County Circuit Court jury recommended Osuna be sentenced to five years in prison on one count and fined $5,000 on each of the other two. Sentencing is set for Friday. Osuna faced four to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $25,000 on each charge.
“This is not about some guy smoking a joint in front of the TV, this is a business” said Mark Booher, deputy prosecuting attorney. “Juries here are not going to put up with it, they’re going to prison.”
Booher noted 40 to 50 percent of local drug task force operations involve marijuana, most of it imported from Mexico.
Osuna had two prior misdemeanor convictions for marijuana possession.
John Threet, prosecuting attorney, told jurors those prior convictions showed Osuna was not going to quit the drug trade.
“I don’t know what else he’s been doing out there, but this is what he got caught at,” Threet said.
The case went to trial after the prosecution and defense could not reach agreement on a plea bargain.
Osuna was adamant he didn’t sell the marijuana. The defense attacked the credibility of the informant and argued police never established Osuna was the other person heard on recordings made from a wire the informant was wearing.
“There’s no direct observation of my client doing a drug deal,” Parks told jurors. “At the end of the day, you’ve got a cocaine user saying he bought marijuana from my client and it’s just not credible.”
But, the informant identified Osuna in court.
“They wired me up and gave me money and I went to his place and traded the goods,” the informant told jurors.
The informant was paid $80 to $100 for each buy he made from Osuna, according to testimony. He had earlier “worked off” two felony cocaine delivery charges by making other controlled buys for the task force.