Storm Lake arrest follows drug solicitation report, officer injured, cocaine found
A 4:13 a.m. Lincoln Road stop led to cocaine, a hip contusion and a $13,300 bond for Julio Hernandez Villegas.
At about 4:13 a.m. June 21, officers were called to the 600 block of Lincoln Road after a person reported that a man approached them and tried to sell narcotics.
The victim told police the suspect, later identified as 26-year-old Julio Hernandez Villegas, threatened to shoot them if they reported the encounter to law enforcement. Officers found Hernandez Villegas nearby, and he physically resisted as they tried to arrest him. One officer reported a hip contusion and minor bodily injury before Hernandez Villegas was subdued. A search incident to arrest turned up two small bags of cocaine in his pockets. Hernandez Villegas was booked into the Buena Vista County Jail on charges including possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, first-degree harassment, interference with official acts causing bodily injury and public intoxication. Bond was set at $13,300. Buena Vista County jail administrator Alyson Sievers said he was also being held on an ICE immigration detainer, which she described as an “Immigrations Hold.”
Under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy, a detainer asks a jail to notify the agency before release and can request that the person be held for up to 48 hours beyond the normal release time.
Under Iowa law, first-degree harassment applies when a threat involves a forcible felony. The threat to shoot the victim pushed the case into that higher charge, alongside the drug allegation and the physical resistance that injured an officer.
A separate Buena Vista County case moved through the jail the same weekend. Stacy Wray, 25, of Newell, was booked June 20 on domestic assault of a pregnant person and domestic assault after an incident in the 300 block of East Third Street in Storm Lake. Investigators said a pregnant female victim alleged Wray choked her after an argument, while Wray said his hands slipped and he stopped when he realized what was happening. A witness who tried to break up the confrontation was slapped, a claim Wray denied.
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