Hegstrom pleads guilty to drug charges

This article submitted by Linda Stelling on 1/21/97.

Scott Hegstrom, 34, Spicer, and three other central Minnesota men pleaded guilty in United States District Court last week to running a methamphet-amine operation in the Willmar area.

Hegstrom and William Bishop, 34, New London, both pleaded guilty to conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute methamphetamine. Daniel Schroeder, 32, Spicer, pleaded guilty to trafficking methamphetamines. Earlier, Randall Newville pleaded guilty to conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute methamphetamine and money laundering. All four entered their pleas before Judge James Rosenbaum in Minneapolis.

Two co-defendants in the case, Kevin Evink and Cheryl Kegreberg, are scheduled to plead guilty later this month.

Bishop and Newville both face a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison. Hegstrom faces a possible mandatory 10 years in prison. Schroeder faces a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison. The actual sentences will be determined by Judge Rosenbaum based on federal sentencing guidelines.

Newville coordinated drug shipments from California from June 1994 to October 1995, and sometimes drove to California to bring the drugs here. The California man who sent the drugs to Minnesota said Hegstrom was one of the people he sold to. In an October search in Hegstrom’s home, authorities found small amounts of methamphet-amine, scales and packaging materials.

Hegstrom is currently serving a 13-year sentence in the state prison for criminal vehicular homicide in the deaths of Milo and Zelpha Brossard and Iva Burr.

The case is the result of an investigation by the CEE VI Drug Task Force, the Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force, the Itasca County Sheriff’s Department and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

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