A.L. man sentenced to 5 years in prison

Published 7:21 am Sunday, April 28, 2013

An Albert Lea man was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday for assaulting another man in October and then threatening to kill at least two other people — including a 13-year-old child.

Reinaldo Quesada, 38, will serve his prison sentence in St. Cloud. He will receive credit for 178 days already served in jail, according to Freeborn County District Court online records.

Reinaldo Quesada

Reinaldo Quesada

A 12-member jury in February found Quesada guilty of being in possession of a firearm as a felon and second-degree assault, tied to the Oct. 29 incident.

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Freeborn County District Court Judge Ross Leuning on Thursday sentenced Quesada to five years for the firearm charge and three years and nine months for the assault charge.

The prison time will be served concurrently.

The jury also found Quesada to be guilty of terroristic threats, but Leuning did not pronounce a sentence for this charge.

Assistant Freeborn County Attorney David Walker said the sentence was the mandatory minimum sentence because of the involvement of the firearm.

Quesada was convicted of aiding and abetting the sale of cocaine in November 2008 and was sentenced to 33 months in prison in 2009. Because of this conviction, he was prohibited from possessing any type of firearm.

Court records state this case involved a BB gun, though under Minnesota law this is still classified as a firearm.

“The sentence was the legal and appropriate sentence for this offense,” Walker said.

Court documents state police were called to 327 Winter Ave. after Quesada reportedly pulled out what appeared to be a black handgun from his pants pocket and pointed it at one adult and one teenager, threatening to kill them.

Just prior, Quesada and another man had reportedly been punching a third man in the face and at one point were even stomping on the man’s head, the court records state.

When police arrived at the house, Quesada and another man had run outside to a shed behind a nearby house.

Police found a BB gun about five to eight feet inside the doorway of the shed.