His wife is to be sentenced next week

A judge sentenced an Albert Lea man to four years in prison Thursday for aiding and abetting his wife during a methamphetamine sale in March to an undercover officer.

The sentence came after Gabriel Dominguez-Espinoza, 36, pleaded guilty to second-degree aiding and abetting in the sale of 7 grams of the drug in July in Freeborn County District Court.

His wife, Melyssa Ellen Dominguez, 23, pleaded guilty to second-degree meth sales in June and faces the same amount of time in prison. She is slated to be sentenced next Thursday.

According to court documents, the sale took place in the parking lot of Nelson’s Market Place March 14.

Dominguez reportedly exchanged the drug for $700 in the undercover officer’s car while Dominguez-Espinoza waited in the couple’s car with a baby.

Dominguez-Espinoza said in his plea hearing that he came along on the sale as a protection to his wife, and he knew that his wife was selling meth.

Freeborn County District Court Judge Ross Leuning ordered that Dominguez-Espinoza receive credit for 153 days already spent in jail.

Dominguez-Espinoza will be required to serve a minimum of 32 months in prison and could be eligible for 16 months of supervised release if he does not get in trouble in prison.