1 gets probation for 2016 drug bust

Published 8:12 am Saturday, May 20, 2017

A person charged after a July 21, 2016, drug bust will serve probation.

Miguel Hernandez-Miller, 24, was sentenced Friday in Mower County District Court to serve five years of probation and 40 hours of community service for felony fifth-degree drug possession. He must follow 20 conditions.

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He was arrested along with Tyrone Alexander Bennett, 37, and Brianna Leigh Capretz, 23.

Capretz pleaded guilty to felony fifth-degree drug possession Friday in Mower County District Court as part of a plea agreement and is slated to be sentenced June 22.

Bennett was previously sentenced to a stayed prison term of a year and a day and five years probation.

Austin police executed a search warrant as part of an ongoing investigation at 12:25 p.m. July 21, 2016, at a home on the 200 block of First Street Southeast.

According to court records, Bennett was apprehended shortly after police saw him leave the residence, and police found Capretz and Hernandez-Miller smoking heroin with an open bag of heroin between them in a back bedroom of Bennett’s apartment.

The two were apprehended, and Capretz told officers she had two more bags of heroin in her purse. Police seized the heroin, $375 on Bennett, two Motorola cell phones and various heroin paraphernalia.

According to court records, Capretz admitted to buying heroin from Bennett and smoked it with Hernandez-Miller, adding they planned to smoke before walking back to Hernandez-Miller’s home. She allegedly told officers she bought three bags of heroin around noon for $150 and that she’d bought heroin from Bennett several times before. She also told police she witnessed other sales.

Hernandez-Miller confirmed to police that Capretz bought the heroin and that he smoked with her.

Bennett denied selling heroin to Capretz and Hernandez-Miller, adding he was not a dealer but obtained heroin for people who needed it, according to the court complaint.