Stephen Frederick will serve two consecutive (one after another) prison sentences on a category B felony trafficking charge and a category C controlled substance transporting charge, with a total of at least eight years in prison to be served.
In the Sixth Judicial District Court Sentencing hearing, Frederick apologized to the court for previously failing to appear in his hearings and told Judge Michael Montero that he has been clean from substance use for seven months and has improved his life since by staying clean, helping his family and finding work.
Humboldt County Public Defender Matthew Stermitz asked the court to allow Frederick to complete substance use programming on the charge rather than serve a prison term.
“Obviously Frederick has struggled with substance abuse for a long time, it doesn’t look to me like he’s had a lot of programming,” said Stermitz. “I think the right thing to do is put him on probation, possibly drug court and reside here.”
Frederick was extradited from Oregon after being arrested on a failure to appear warrant after failing to appear for previously scheduled hearings.
Humboldt County Deputy District Attorney Anthony Gordon told the court that Frederick never turned himself in, but rather waited to be picked up on the warrant to face his sentences after absconding, which demonstrates why he would not be a good candidate for probation.
Gordon said that the state is not pursuing a habitual criminal charge even though it would be applicable with Frederick’s previous 22 criminal convictions, 10 being felonies and a significant portion dealing with drugs.
“Both these cases have drugs all over, he was originally arrested in January 2020 with four pounds of marijuana, when he was in the locked facility at HCDC that’s where the 123 grams of methamphetamine were found,” said Gordon. “He did not give these up, he tried to conceal these on his body and then there was a scuffle to get the drugs out. He bailed out and was subsequently arrested in September for the same offense, he had 97 grams of meth as well as 12 grams of heroin and it was evidence that it was packaged for sale.”
Gordon asked the court to administer a 96-180 month sentence with a $100k fine and said that a habitual criminal charge would have added another potential 25 year sentence.
On the trafficking a controlled substance level II category B felony charge which he pleaded no contest to, Frederick was ordered to serve 72 to 180 months in prison with 53 days credit for time served in addition to a $100,000 fine, $500 public defender fee, $153 DNA collection and analysis fee, $60 forensic fee and $25 administrative assessment fee.
Montero said that the 96-180 month sentence recommended by Gordon would have been an illegal sentence and said that the 72 to 180 month sentence is appropriate.
On a transporting a controlled substance category C felony charge to which he pleaded guilty, Frederick was ordered to serve a consecutive sentence of 24 to 60 months in prison with 117 days credit for time served, pay a $60 forensic fee, $25 administrative assessment fee and $3 DNA collection fee.
