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Hammond man pleads guilty to burglary in double-slaying case

VALPARAISO, Ind. (AP) – A Hammond man has pleaded guilty to a felony burglary charge stemming from the fatal shootings of two people slain inside a home that housed a marijuana-growing operation.

Twenty-two-year-old Alejandro Sanchez entered his guilty plea Thursday under a plea deal calling for prosecutors to drop two murder charges he had faced.

Sanchez will face a 16-year prison sentence if a Porter County judge accepts his plea on Aug. 25.

The (Munster) Times reports Sanchez is one of two men charged in the April 2012 shooting deaths of 40-year-old Jeffery Trinka and 31-year-old Jennifer Guinn.

Sanchez has told police his 22-year-old co-defendant, Julius Garza, entered a Hammond home where police later found potted marijuana plants and fatally shot the pair after an unsuccessful attempt to buy some marijuana.