Judge refuses bail to man arrested multiple times for drug charges

Stock photo | St. George News

CEDAR CITY – A 5th District judge is holding a Cedar City man in jail without a chance to bail out after police arrested him for distribution of methamphetamines on Tuesday – the day after he had bailed out for several other drug charges.

Jose De Jesus Garcia is in jail without bail after being arrested multiple times for drug charges, Cedar City Utah, July 20, 2016 | Photo courtesy of the Iron County Sheriff's Office
Jose De Jesus Garcia is in jail without bail after being arrested multiple times for drug charges, Cedar City Utah, July 20, 2016 | Photo courtesy of the Iron County Sheriff’s Office

Judge Keith Barnes put a no bail hold on Jose De Jesus Garcia following his arrest Tuesday for the first-degree felony charge. Barnes’ decision came after the 29-year-old had been released from the Iron County Correctional Facility 24 hours earlier on $70,000 bail for two other cases in April and June.

In addition, police arrested Garcia March 5 for a class A misdemeanor for possession of marijuana, a class B misdemeanor for possession of paraphernalia and a class C misdemeanor for driving on revocation. He bailed out March 14 on $1,670 bail.

Garcia was later charged and the case was settled Thursday after the defendant entered a plea agreement with the Iron County Attorney’s Office, pleading guilty to the class A misdemeanor. The other two charges were dismissed.

In the other two cases, court records show while Garcia was out on bail in the March case, the County Attorney’s Office brought additional charges of possession or use of a controlled substance, a third-degree felony, and possession of drug paraphernalia, a class B misdemeanor.

The County Attorney’s Office filed a summons April 22 for Garcia to turn himself into jail and appear in court on those charges.

Garcia was arrested that same day for more charges involving three drug buys in January where the suspect had allegedly bought methamphetamine from confidential informants, according to the charging documents in the case filed in 5th District Court.

The county attorney later rolled the charges from the two cases into one. At that time, Garcia remained in jail on a $20,000 bondable bail.

More felony drug charges were filed June 7 after authorities learned Garcia had allegedly possessed methamphetamine, marijuana and tobacco while in jail waiting for his April case to be adjudicated.

The charging documents allege Garcia’s “girlfriend” who had been arrested and brought in to the jail in the previous two days had “distributed the narcotics” to him.

Barnes again set a bail on Garcia, this time for $50,000, bringing the total to $70,000 between the two cases.

Court records show Garcia requested he be allowed to go through drug court as an alternative to the traditional court where the charges would be reduced and he would likely be sent to in-patient treatment.

Barnes however, denied the request prompting Garcia to send two letters begging the judge to reconsider. As of publication, Garcia’s request had not yet been granted.

Garcia has a preliminary hearing scheduled July 27 for the recent charge and an arraignment and jury trial set for Sept. 22 in the April and June cases.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @tracie_sullivan

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2016, all rights reserved.

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4 Comments

  • JediJames13 July 21, 2016 at 11:07 pm

    the jury should nullify and free this man, he didn’t hurt anyone.

  • tcrider July 22, 2016 at 7:47 am

    Jose the jesus needs to move to Colorado,
    these idiots are just wasting the local law authorities time,
    when the local cops should be ticketing the locals for tailgating
    and being the absolute worst drivers in the U.S.

  • ladybugavenger July 22, 2016 at 8:32 am

    Are you sure you got all the straggling charges? too bad he’s not a Jeffs and only had a million dollar food stamp fraud case against him then he would have been let go until trial. (Oh yeah! Jeffs is not going to be appearing for his trial so let’s just do what his lawyer asks and dismiss all charges lol hahahaha what a joke!)

  • .... July 22, 2016 at 6:18 pm

    The local law enforcement and judicial system is where Hollywood gets ideas for their cartoons. ..!

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