A 51-year-old man was sentenced to nearly eight years in federal prison Thursday for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez handed down the sentence for Jose Raquel Lerma Sr., who previously pleaded guilty to the charge.
Lerma Sr. is the father of a 33-year-old man who in an unrelated case is accused of selling cocaine laced with fentanyl that killed a 29-year-old trombonist at a McAllen bar.
On Aug. 19, 2022, the U.S. Marshals and the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at Lerma Sr.’s residence where authorities found drugs, money, ammunition, a rifle and a pistol, according to a federal criminal complaint.
Lerma Sr. has remained in federal custody since that arrest.
His son, 33-year-old Lerma Jr., faces four charges in state court including manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance resulting in death and serious bodily injury and a count of manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance.
Lerma Jr. is accused of selling the drugs that killed Sergio Sanchez, a member of Brownsville’s Banda La Nueva Generación de Chuy Hernandez, on Nov. 14, 2020. The drugs sent three other band members to the hospital.
The McAllen Police Department initially arrested Lerma Jr. on drug charges on Nov. 16, 2020, and he bailed out of the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center two days later.
Following his indictment for the overdose death, Lerma Jr. was again arrested on May 25, 2021. He bailed out of the county jail on June 12, 2021, on a total of $100,000 in bonds.
Lerma Jr. has pleaded not guilty to the state charges.
Editor’s note: This story and headline have been edited throughout to correct and clarify information identifying two related suspects in two unrelated cases, one a federal firearms case and the other the fentanyl case.
