Edgardo Dominguez-Cortez was sentenced to 9.25 years in the Buckeye heroin case built around a cereal box of pills.

A sentence after a jury verdict is the court's judgment on those counts. It is not a finding about anyone who was not on trial. The attorney general said two co-defendants pleaded guilty and received shorter terms. Their pleas are their own convictions. The 9.25-year term is the judgment on Dominguez-Cortez.

The Attorney General's Office said Buckeye police stopped a car on Dec. 21, 2024, in which Dominguez-Cortez was a passenger with Jesus Beltran Bajorquez and Marcos Ochoa. A search found a cereal box containing about 8,000 pills that tested positive for heroin. AZFamily reported the box was a Golden Grahams box stuffed with bags of blue pills. The office said a search of Dominguez-Cortez's phone found a video of the pill-filled box and messages about a drug deal, and that downloads from the other two phones showed similar conversations, including messages inviting him to take part.

All three were charged with conspiracy, illegally conducting an enterprise, and transportation of a narcotic drug for sale, the office said. Bajorquez pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years. Ochoa pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight. Dominguez-Cortez went to trial in August 2026. The office said a jury found him guilty on all counts on Aug. 13, and that on Sept. 28 he received concurrent terms, the longest of which is 9.25 years. The office also said he was on felony probation out of Santa Cruz County for a drug-trafficking-related money-laundering offense when these crimes were committed. The Daily Independent reported the same sentence and the same Aug. 13 verdict.

The co-defendants' plea sentences are judgments on their own cases. The jury's verdict and the 9.25-year term are the judgment on his. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.