A local woman was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with 12 years suspended, after pleading guilty Monday to felony drug charges stemming from a traffic stop earlier this year.
Andrea Marie Burciaga, 36, appeared in Garland County Circuit Court and pleaded guilty to possession of meth with purpose to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia while additional felony and misdemeanor counts involving possession of marijuana and clonazepam were withdrawn.
Her sentence is to run concurrently with a sentence of eight years in prison after the revocation Monday of her suspended sentence from pleading guilty Feb. 12 to delivery of meth and unlawful use of a communications device.
According to the probable cause affidavit on her arrest May 1, shortly after 8:30 a.m., Hot Springs police Officer Joey Vanderburg observed a white 2004 Lexus traveling north on Linwood Avenue that crossed the centerline multiple times and then ran a stop sign at Linwood and Ward Street.
He stopped the vehicle and a female passenger jumped out and fled on foot and could not be located. He made contact with the driver, identified as Burciaga, and noted a strong odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle.
She gave him consent to search and he located 0.1 gram of meth in her purse, 2.9 grams of marijuana in the center console, a marijuana blunt in the driver's side door, clonazepam tablets, two digital scales, baggies, two marijuana smoking pipes, a glass meth pipe, rolling papers and $340 in cash.
The 18th Judicial District East Drug Task Force assumed control of the seized money and vehicle. Burciaga was later released on $15,000 bond and pleaded not guilty to the charge on Aug. 1. She was scheduled for a hearing on Oct. 9 to determine the admissibility of statements she made to the police but opted to plead guilty instead.
Local on 09/19/2018