U.S. drug 'mule' gets 3-year prison sentence on his 90th birthday

By James B. Kelleher

DETROIT (Reuters) - A 90-year-old Indiana man who admitted serving as a cocaine courier for a Mexican drug cartel was sentenced on Wednesday to three years in federal prison.

Leo Sharp, a decorated World War Two combat veteran who turned 90 on Wednesday, was also sentenced to three years supervised release by Judge Nancy Edmunds in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

Sharp had told Edmunds before she sentenced him, "All I can tell you your honor is that I'm really heartbroken that I did what I did. But it's done."

Afterward, Sharp turned to prosecutors and called the three-year prison term a "death sentence."

Sharp was pulled over by police in October 2011 for erratic driving on an interstate highway in Michigan with what turned out to be 104 bricks of cocaine in his truck.

Prosecutors said Sharp hauled 1,250 kilograms (2,755 pounds) of cocaine into Michigan from the southwest United States on a half-dozen trips from February 2010 until his arrest, earning $1,000 per kilogram for drugs he transported.

He also hauled duffel bags stuffed with cash back to the southwest border of the United States for the criminal organization that was part of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, prosecutors said.

He pleaded guilty last October to one count of conspiring to distribute cocaine in an agreement with prosecutors that included a recommendation for a prison sentence of five years.

Sharp's attorneys had asked for supervised release or home confinement, saying he suffers from dementia and other health conditions and needs 24-hour monitoring.

Prosecutors said, however, that Sharp had managed to avoid detection for a decade in part because of his age and was now trying to use his age to shield himself from punishment.

Edmunds departed from both suggestions and said the effort to blame Sharp's actions on age and dementia was "an insult to all the people who struggle with dementia and don't become involved in illegal activity."

Edmunds said Sharp was in the middle of the drug conspiracy.

"This is not a victimless crime," Edmunds said. "This is a very serious offense."

Sharp's plea agreement and reduced charge allowed him to avoid a mandatory 10-year minimum sentence. He agreed to forfeit two properties in Florida and $500,000 cash, but not his home and farm in Michigan City, Indiana.

(Reporting by James B. Kelleher; Writing by David Bailey; Editing by Jon Herskovitz)

Society & CultureCrime & JusticeNancy EdmundsMexican drug cartel

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'Bucket List Bandit' gets 11 years sentence in Pa.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A bank robber nicknamed the "Bucket List Bandit" after allegedly telling a Utah teller he had just four months to live was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in federal prison for a string of heists spanning 10 states.

Michael Eugene Brewster's public defender told the federal judge who handed down the sentence that a medical evaluation found his client didn't have cancer or any other terminal illness.

Brewster's case made headlines after the Standard-Examiner of Ogden, Utah, gave Brewster the nickname because of the comment he reportedly made to a Wells Fargo Bank teller during a July 6, 2012, robbery in Roy, Utah. The FBI used the nickname to publicize subsequent robberies until they learned Brewster's real identity.

"The impetus for the crimes was greed, not grief," U.S. District Judge Sean McLaughlin told Brewster. His lawyer, Thomas Patton, declined to comment.

Brewster's sentence works out to a year for each of the 11 bank heists he committed across the country last year, though under federal sentencing guidelines, he might have received as little as 6½ years. Those guidelines, which take into account a person's criminal history and the seriousness of the crime, were increased because of the number of banks Brewster robbed, resulting in the longer sentence.

"Given what he did, and his age and all of the circumstances, he's going to be away a long time and substantially for most of the rest of his life," U.S. Attorney David Hickton said. "We're satisfied that justice was done."

Brewster, 54, formerly of Pensacola, Fla., was sentenced in Erie, the city 120 miles north of Pittsburgh where his nationwide robbery string ended Sept. 10. It began June 21, 2012, in Arvada, Colo.

Brewster was arrested three days after the Erie robbery when he ran a stop sign in Roland, Okla. Federal prosecutors brought him back to Erie and easily linked him to the other heists because he was seen wearing the same pale blue polo shirt, glasses and brushed back hair in surveillance videos.

According to court documents, Brewster stole a total of $33,858 and sometimes threatened tellers with violence and claimed to have a gun. Nobody was injured in the robberies.

The smallest amount Brewster stole was $632 from Landmark Bank in Columbia, Mo., on Aug 29, and the most he netted was $7,000 taken during the Utah heist that fueled his nickname.

Although the surveillance videos made it clear that one man was responsible for several robberies, the FBI didn't know who he was until a tipster saw news coverage of the Pennsylvania heist and gave agents Brewster's name and birth date.

In some cases, Brewster explained his actions by claiming to be terminally ill and, according to the FBI, specifically told the Utah teller, "I have four months to live."

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Ohio woman's sentence includes Christmases in jail

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A central Ohio judge has ordered a woman to spend the next five Christmases in jail as part of her sentence for issuing state ID cards and driver's licenses to immigrants who entered the country illegally.

Prosecutors say 44-year-old Betina Young — a former license agency employee — accepted payments from applicants to falsify records showing they had verified their immigration status. She has pleaded guilty.

The Columbus Dispatch reports (http://bit.ly/17AzoIw ) that Judge Michael Holbrook put Young on probation Monday for five years — ordering that she spend a minimum of three days in jail each Christmas while on probation.

If she violates probation, she could go to prison for 15 years.

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Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com

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