Othello woman sentenced to federal prison in connection with stolen firearms
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years, 5 months AGO
Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience serving small communities in the Pacific Northwest. She began her post-high-school education at Treasure Valley Community College and enerned her journalism degree at Oregon State University. After working for multiple publications, she has settled down at the Columbia Basin Herald and has been a staple of the newsroom for more than a decade. Schweizer’s dedication to her communities and profession has earned her the nickname “The Baroness of Bylines.” She covers a variety of beats including health, business and various municipalities. | March 21, 2023 4:34 PM
OTHELLO — An Othello woman was sentenced to almost four years in federal prison Monday after pleading guilty to helping a co-defendant sell stolen firearms. One of the guns was used in the fatal shooting of a child in Othello in February 2021, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington.
Alondra Yaniz, 25, was sentenced to 46 months in prison, the release said. She pleaded guilty on Dec. 14 to being a felon in possession of firearms. Yaniz was sentenced in Adams County Superior Court to one year for second-degree theft in connection with the same case. That sentence will be served consecutively.
According to U.S. District Court documents, Yaniz advertised guns for sale on social media in late February 2021. The guns had been stolen; Yaniz’s co-defendant, Guillermo Valdez, broke into a Spokane-area home on Feb. 24, 2021, and stole 11 guns.
One of the guns was sold to an Othello man who shot and killed his four-year-old child on Feb. 27, 2021.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Othello Police Department, the Moses Lake Police Department, the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office and the Washington State Patrol, the release said.
Valdez, 34, Moses Lake, was sentenced to 204 months, more than 33 years, in federal prison in October 2022 in an unrelated case. Valdez pleaded guilty in April 2022 to possession with intent to distribute 500 or more grams of methamphetamine and two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Valdez had attempted to flee from Washington State Patrol troopers in April 2021 and was seen throwing away a bag which was recovered and found to contain 822 grams of methamphetamines and a pistol, according to an earlier release from the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Valdez crashed his car through a fence and was detained after being found hiding in a tree. He was arrested at his Moses Lake residence in July 2021; the house was searched and law enforcement officers found 604 grams of methamphetamine.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached at [email protected].
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