- Sam Hurd, 28, received the punishment Wednesday in a federal courtroom in Dallas, Texas
- He pleaded guilty in April to one count of trying to buy and distribute large amounts of cocaine and marijuana
- U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis gave Hurd a much shorter sentence than the 27 to 34 years recommended by federal sentencing guidelines
- Hurd stood in the court in orange jail scrubs and made a rambling, emotional 30-minute plea for mercy
Sentenced:
Former NFL star Sam Hurd was sentenced to 15 years in jail on
Wednesday for buying large amounts of illegal drugs
Disgraced
former Chicago Bears player Sam Hurd was yesterday sentenced to 15
years in prison for his role in starting a drug-distribution scheme
that ended his football career and left his future in tatters.
Hurd,
28, received the punishment in a federal courtroom in Dallas after
pleading guilty in April to one count of trying to buy and distribute
large amounts of cocaine and marijuana.
The
charge carried a minimum 10-year sentence and a maximum of life.
Authorities
say that while NFL teammates and friends knew him as a hardworking
wide receiver and married father, Hurd was fashioning a separate
identity as a wannabe drug kingpin with a focus on 'high-end deals'
and a need for large amounts of drugs.
U.S.
District Judge Jorge Solis gave Hurd a much shorter sentence than the
27 to 34 years recommended by federal sentencing guidelines.
Solis
noted that the case against Hurd centered on a 'lot of agreements' to
buy and sell marijuana and cocaine, rather than physical transactions
of drugs.
But,
the judge said, 'You didn't just start nickel and diming it.'
Hurd
stood before him in orange jail scrubs after a rambling, emotional
30-minute plea for mercy.
Behind
him in the gallery were more than a dozen family members and friends.
'You
had everything going for you,' Solis told Hurd, adding that he
thought the case was a 'tragedy.'
Federal
inmates are typically not eligible for parole and required to serve
at least 85 percent of their sentences
Wide
receiver: Sam Hurd during the NFL game between The Detroit Lions and
the Dallas Cowboys
Hurd's December 2011 arrest outside a suburban Chicago steakhouse came after he tried to buy a kilogram of cocaine in what turned out to be a sting. According to a federal complaint, Hurd told an undercover agent that he wanted 5 to 10 kilograms of cocaine and 1,000 pounds of marijuana per week to distribute in the Chicago area.
He
claimed he was already distributing 4 kilograms a week, according to
the complaint. A kilogram is about 2.2 pounds.
At
the time, Hurd was a wide receiver with stints for the Bears and
Dallas Cowboys who had played most of his five seasons on special
teams. He was in the first year of a three-year contract reportedly
worth more than $5 million.
The
Bears soon cut him. Hurd was released on bail and returned to Texas,
where he grew up, but soon fell into trouble again, according to
court documents. He allegedly tried to buy more cocaine and marijuana
through a cousin, Jesse Tyrone Chavful, and failed two drug tests.
That led a magistrate judge in August 2012 to revoke his bail and
order him returned to jail.
Hurd
spoke near the end of a four-hour hearing, sometimes reading from
handwritten notes and sometimes looking directly at Solis to plead
for mercy.
While
he denied leading a major conspiracy or dealing with Chavful, Hurd
admitted to having a marijuana addiction and a weakness for friends
who needed his help. He admitted giving $88,000 to another
co-defendant, Toby Lujan, knowing that the money might go to buy
drugs. And he admitted the fateful meeting at a steakhouse that ended
in his arrest.
'I
regret not thinking about the consequences,' Hurd said, adding: 'I
made some dumb, very bad decisions.'
His
attorneys tried to explain his claims of having high-value customers
and massive demand for drugs as mere boasting, saying he had a
penchant for exaggeration. One of his lawyers, Michael McCrum, called
his client 'a guy showing up at a restaurant, talking stupid.'
'I
think he should be punished, but for the crime that he committed,'
McCrum said.
Revelation
13:
16 And
he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond,
to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And
that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name
of the beast, or the number of his name.
And
I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness
against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and
against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling
in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the
stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of
hosts.
For
without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and
murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
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