Contributed Photo/Courtesy GCSO: Former football coach Sean Hinton will be sentenced to between 7.5 and 15 years on drug charges.
By Jon Johnson
SAFFORD – Facing a possibility of up to 35 years behind bars, Sean Jacob Hinton, 40, took a plea agreement on Tuesday, Feb. 13, that will send him to prison between 7.5 and 15 years. The final sentencing will be up to Graham County Superior Court Judge Pro Tem Travis W. Ragland.
Hinton was facing numerous felonies relating to the transportation and sale of fentanyl, an opiate that can be 50 times more potent than heroin.
Hinton was Thatcher’s head football coach from 2015-2018, winning back-to-back 2A state championships in 2016 and 2017. In July 2018 he was removed as Thatcher’s head football coach. More recently, he served as a volunteer assistant coach on Safford High School’s JV football team in 2022.
His current cases involve multiple possession of a narcotic drug and possession of a narcotic drug for sale charges. He also faced a petition to revoke his probation from a plea deal he took in 2020 that closed out three previous separate cases against him, including DUI-drug charges that stemmed from an incident on the evening of May 20, 2019, and multiple drug charges from an incident the afternoon of Nov. 17, 2019, in which Hinton was allegedly found smoking heroin in a truck with a female companion in an area behind the Haven Nursing home off Peppertree Drive.
The new charges stem from three separate incidents involving counterfeit Oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl. According to authorities, in one incident, Hinton accidentally dropped a bag of pills at Home Depot and was caught on surveillance footage.
He was already under investigation by the Arizona Department of Public Safety at the time, which had allegedly purchased 185 counterfeit Oxycodone pills from Hinton during one exchange and had set up a buy for 1,000 pills that fell through.
In March 2023, a warrant was issued for Hinton’s arrest but he fled from officers and called for a ride. When his ride came, Hinton allegedly ran up to the vehicle and tossed a bag of counterfeit Oxycodone pills into it before running away from authorities. Both men were arrested shortly thereafter and Hinton received his second possession of a narcotic drug for sale charge.
On Feb. 13, Hinton appeared in front of Judge Travis W. Ragland and pleaded guilty to an amended count of attempt to commit the sale or transportation of narcotic drugs – a class-3 felony. Hinton also pleaded guilty to possession of narcotic drugs – a class-4 felony.
According to the plea agreement, Hinton will be sentenced between 7.5 and 15 years on the attempted sale charge with the final amount to be determined by Judge Ragland at sentencing. Hinton will also serve a concurrent term of 4.5 years in prison on the narcotic possession charge, which will run at the same time as his longer prison term.
The plea agreement dismisses multiple charges of possession of a narcotic drug, possession of a narcotic drug for sale, and possession of drug paraphernalia. The prosecution is being handled by Graham County Attorney L. Scott Bennett, and Mr. Hinton is represented by defense attorney Josi Lopez.
