(Kenosha County Sheriff)
The Kenosha County District Attorney’s office today announced that they intend to retry a 25-year-old Milwaukee man for a minor marijuana case. The trial is expected to cost up to or more than $10,000.
The first trial of Ruben Mizrain-Aguilar was a hung jury, with 5 jurors voting “not guilty” and 7 voting “guilty.” Outgoing District Attorney Michael Graveley (D) made the decision to put Mizrain-Aguilar through another trial. Everyone in the room -, the prosecutors, public defender, judge, deputies, and even the jury will be paid with tax dollars.
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Drew Lehman told the court the case was being retried due to “new evidence” making the case stronger. He failed to disclose what the new evidence was in open court today.
(Kenosha County Sheriff)
The Incident
On May 30, 2023, a Kenosha County Sheriff’s Deputy pulled over a car with three young adult occupants in Bristol. The trio drove about four hours to the state of Michigan to buy some marijuana. There was a Memorial Day sale and they wanted to stock up. It seemed like the three were casual marijuana smokers and THC users.
Law enforcement agencies throughout the county have told KCE that street marijuana is often laced with Fentanyl, so it makes sense that they would go to a state that regulates the drug and they know they won’t get a hot batch.
Mizrain-Aguilar was sitting shotgun. His friend, Diego Perez-Ignacia, was driving and a friend of the two, Marisol Rodriguez, was sitting in the back passenger seat. On the front passenger floorboard of the vehicle, where Mizrain-Aguilar was seated, the deputy located a large white bag labeled “Cookies”, which is a common brand of THC cookies. On the floorboard where Rodriguez was seated, there were more THC products. Also located was a marijuana grinder.
All of the bags were bought at dispensaries in the Kalamazoo, MI area totaling about $3,000 between the three of them. The total amount in the vehicle was about 639 grams of THC. In all, about 22.5 ounces of THC. The driver waived his right to remain silent and told the deputy that he and his friends bought the THC for personal use. There were no scales, or any other type of distribution-related items found in the car, which would be common for drug-dealers.
Mizrain-Aguilar, Perez-Ignacia, and Rodriguez were all charged with “Possession with Intent to Distribute THC (more than 200 grams, but less than 1,000 grams) and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia for the marijuana grinder. The possession with intent charges were Class H felonies with a possible sentence of up to 6 years in prison.
Perez-Ignacia, and Rodriguez both took plea deals in which the paraphernalia charges were dismissed, but the felonies were reduced to Class I, meaning they faced a maximum sentence of 3.5 years in prison. Class I felonies are the least severe. Perez-Ignacia, and Rodriguez both got probation, the former, 18 months, and the latter, 12 months.
Mizrain-Aguilar, seemingly told his attorney that he’s not taking the plea offer. He went to trial. After all, he didn’t buy the THC to sell, but to use. Using THC isn’t a felony in Wisconsin unless it’s your second or subsequent offense. Mizrain-Aguilar has a clean record, but the Kenosha County DA’s office wanted to brand him as a felon.
The Trial
At trial, the jury hung at 7-“guilty,” and 5-“not guilty.” In Wisconsin, for a verdict to be valid, it must be unanimous. The possession of drug paraphernalia charge was a unanimous “not guilty” verdict. KCE was able to speak with one of the female jurors named “Willow”, who was on the “not guilty” side. She was gracious enough to give us her insight on the trial.
“We all agreed that [Mizrain-Aguilar] was definitely in possession. Sure. And that was proven by the state,” said Willow. “Where all of us had problems deciding on intent to deliver 200 grams or less or 200 grams or more, is the proof that the state had. It seemed like the state was really banking on the volume that was found in the car.”
Willow said the five jurors that found him “not guilty” because they weren’t convinced that Mizrain-Aguilar was going to resell the THC. Willow told KCE that during the Voir Dire section of the trial, the prosecutor brought up the plea deals of the other two co-defendants. That’s illegal, but Judge Gabriele, who presided over the trial is an for prosecutor, usually allows the prosecution to do as they please. It should have resulted in a mistrial. It didn’t. Willow doesn’t want her tax dollars going towards another trial with the same evidence. “Some jurors did bring up the fact [that marijuana is legal in many states], there was one juror who vocalized their frustration with the fact that weed is illegal here.”
“Personally, I feel that there were a couple of jurors, two jurors, that are responsible for hanging the case, because they wanted to see him convicted of intent to deliver. And they, it was very strange, they accused the five of us of wanting to see them lose and to be stubborn, so that the five of us could win. You know, they just made it very combative,” said Willow.
The judge allowed for the Jury to have some other options, less serious options called “lesser includeds.” Intent to deliver over 200, intent to deliver under 200, and simple possession. “And the instructions were, if you do not agree on the intent to deliver over 200, deliberate about intent under two. If you do not agree on intent under two, deliberate about possession,” said Willow. At one point the jury was unanimous with finding Mizrain-Aguilar guilty of simple possession but she said two men on the jury then “changed” their vote to hang the jury. “Two people said that they were going to change, two people said that they would change their vote to not guilty for possession, because they would not accept anything less than intent to deliver,” Willow told KCE. “So in other words, they would have rather had a mistrial than him having just the misdemeanor instead of the felony.”
Opinion
Marijuana is legal for recreational purposes in 24 states and DC. For medicinal use, it’s 33 states and DC. It is no longer safe for potheads to buy weed on the street. These three made a safe, albeit illegal choice to cross state lines and buy THC that was sure to be free of Fentanyl or any other drugs that kill people. The Kenosha County District Attorney’s office made two otherwise law-abiding people into felons. Not this guy. Mizrain-Aguilar wanted his day in court. He got it. Kenosha might send a lot of people to prison, but for the wrong reasons. Do we want people who smoke weed in our prisons sucking off uncle Sam’s teet? I don’t. The three likely bought large quantities as to reduce the amount of times they had to make the illegal journey, not because they wanted to sell it for a profit. Does that even make sense? Buying marijuana at an inflated retail price and trying to resell it for more than that? It doesn’t make sense because they were not going to sell it. They tried a terrible case and they should NOT retry the case. Enough money was already spent on this failed trial. Don’t spend our money on another losing trial. You already extorted guilty pleas to two other individuals. That’s enough. ADA Lehman is not a bad prosecutor or person. In this case, he just showed bad judgement. KCE spoke with DA Mike Graveley (D) who told KCE that he will let Lehman decide on another trial or not. We spoke with Lehman who told us “I have not made any decision one way or the other. I am currently waiting on additional information before deciding.”
DA-Elect Solis will ultimately decide if this case is worthy of spending valuable time and resources on. Lehman, having put in his notice to leave Kenosha and move closer to his family, made a bad choice by leaving this case for the next administration still open. Let’s hope our new DA will worry about kids bringing guns into schools, teachers raping kids, dangerous drugs, and violent offenses. Save the trial resources for those cases.
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
50 Responses
It seems to be target the Mexicans week.
Moral of the story is don’t do drugs and you won’t go to jail.
Not that hard of a concept to understand.
IT’S WEED.. ITS NOT THAT SERIOUS THO?
It’s the LAW that makes it serious. Don’t agree with it, work to change it, until then, if you’re not a law abiding citizen, and you get caught, it needs to be treated seriously, as every law abiding citizen should expect…..
the people have voted for it, the lawmakers do what is in their interest
Kenosha voted 80% to legalize in a referendum. Think before you speak.
Um, no they didn’t.
Marijuana is only illegal as it’s a cash grab opportunity. The equivalent of a CCW permit. Total unconstitutional bs. Carry on and continue as a sheep.
Pot is not a drug as far as I’m concerned, find something more worthy to bust soneone for instead of marijuana
on phonem grave
I have a job delivering electronics in the area and smoke 24-7.
another prosecution for a victimless crime in the so-called free-est country in the world, the non United States of Israel USI. don’t worry, trump the zionist will right the ship.
“Victimless crime” LMAO
It most definitely is a victimless crime, it’s marijuana. Hard to classify a ‘victim’ as a person who over eats, watches comedy movies and then takes a nice sleep.
You can actually have these two thoughts in your head at the same time:
1. Marijuana should be at minimum, rescheduled if not outright legalized
2. Legalization would be a net negative to society
This story falls under #1, a waste of time and resources to retry this.
Even it is not legal in every state, it definitely decriminalized in the majority, except WI, FL, TX and a handful of others.
These folks who enjoy their stinky weed are “free” to move in this country..
As a non-marijuana user who believes it should be rescheduled/legalized, I actually somewhat agree with this sentiment. I believe it needs to resheduled from a cost perspective, however, I have spent time in downtown Denver, where it is basically legalized and it is a mess. You can’t leave a 4-5 star hotel without smelling it and personally I cannot stand the smell anymore than I can stand cigarette smoke. And it has increased the social decay of the area. This is why I say above it still will be a “net negative”.
I wish legalization advocates would stick to the idea that they simply want the right to use it in peace at home. We don’t generally allow people to walk around with open intoxicants in public areas. You rarely see a tabacco smoker on the sidewalk these days, they’re all doing Zyn. But this toleration of weed in public should NOT be allowed. Feel free to knock yourself at home or with your buddies at their home. But the wafting smell in urban areas, along with the urine, makes me want to puke.
Trumps last bankruptcy will be the USA
Except with the destruction that’s been going on in the last 4 years and especially just the last month, only liars like you will smirk and call it the Trump bankruptcy.
enlighten us about the laws in your great country d.c.
assclown
These ass clowns drove 4 hours to Michigan to buy some weed when they could have drove 30 minutes across the border and bought it in IL. Anyhow, nice job Kenosha on wasting tax payer $$$$. Happy to know where there money from our outrageous property taxes go. $10k could train the entire KPD how to properly pat down a suspect. 🙂
OR GET THEIR SRO’S SOME TRAINING.
IL taxes are high* pun intended.
You’re paying 3 times the price in the flatlands.
Users travel to Michigan vs Illinois because Michigan’s taxes are lower, and they also allow you to purchase more quantity in one transaction. I even believe they let you make several transactions in one visit. Where as Illinois they cap you at a certain amount.
PLUS!? F*ck Illinois
It’s cheaper in Michigan. The Illinois stores over the border sell most of their products to Wisconsinites, so they jack the price up.
They bought it legally within the United States. We are talking about a substance that is less harmful than alcohol…. there are laws that are outdated yet we choose to prosecute due to some antiquated biases. WI needs to follow in all border state laws on this issue, pulling jurors for a case like this is a waste of everyone’s time. Victimless “crime”
I’m not a pothead, but this is silly.
They say abortion is “victimless” too…
Oh my, we have a libtard in the comments.
Oh stop it!
The stuff in Michigan is cheaper and stronger. So they got a lot more in Michigan than they would have gotten in IL.
Indeed. Illinois is insane on their taxes on weed.
Stronger? what? You have no clue what you’re talking about, sit down
I call Bullshit; these free citizens who enjoy their stinky weed odor and its affects without any concern for the way it effects anything or anyone around them are free to move to any of those border states.
I prefer to NOT have myself and my family assaulted by the odor and headaches daily; in the store check out line, at the theater, in the restaurants, apartment hallways, the DMV waiting area, school pickup line, the workplace, etc., etc., etc.
How is it these folks are affording this product? Ive seen sooo many fail to gain employment, and also lose employment over popping dirty on a drug test, where is there money coming from?
The judge seemed biased. She reminds me a judge Wagner. Already formed an opinion. Gravely is selective who we prosecutes. This supposed to be the justice system. Wow
You put your weed in there.
So when do I get to decide which laws I obey ? As long as it’s the law we have to abide by it. The police did their job now the DA is doing his.
Drive to Michigan and get some edibles Grandpa.
Wasn’t our Governor going to legalize marijuana if he was elected?
Didn’t we have a referendum in Kenosha once upon a time where the majority of the voters said yes to legalize marijuana?
Gravely has his head up his Hershey highway. Same with Man-cow McNeil. Run scumbags, don’t walk. The voter’s have spoken.
The referendum was just to get people to the ballot in the first place. I’m for legalization (under certain circumstances), I don’t do it, but I’m for it. I can admit the non-binding referendum is a partisan ploy to get people to show up to vote. All major parties do it, Its dumb.
My big hang up is that there isn’t a great way to test driving impairment the way you can use a breathalyzer for alcohol. Other methods are pretty flawed.
Republicans and the Tavern League won’t let the will of the voters happen for cannabis to be legalized in the State of Wisconsin.
Wrong answer. The Democratic Govenor, decided to not listen to the people and instead went with the Tavern League money. Keep voting Democrat and nothing will change.
Most Republicans hate weed
Yep, only leeches on welfare want that sh*t.
Does anyone remember their parents heading to Illinois for margarine/oleo? What rebels!
It is very much worth the 2.5 hour drive to New Buffalo, MI for access to legal marijuana. I purchase a felonious amount of my preferred medication for pain management (I refuse any and all opioids; the risks outweigh their benefits, in my opinion.) and place in a locked container in my trunk. I then drive responsibility back to Wisconsin. I do not sell any of my purchases. It is all for personal use in my own home. I know I am not at risk of an overdose when I use marijuana. It gives relief without the side effects found in opioids. My doctor fully supports my decision to medicate with marijuana.
Don’t forget to educate yourselves on the real reason marijuana is illegal:
https://www.britannica.com/story/why-is-marijuana-illegal-in-the-us
Agree, loveeeee Michigan’s prices
Wisconsin is correct. It’s a gateway drug. It starts a person’s addiction process, which carries on to other drugs in a few people.
Get a job!
Not 4 hours to Michigan.. JS….
Meanwhile I smell weed all day and night coming out of cars.