DRUG DEALER GETS 20-YEAR TERM

TAMPA - Brandon Erwin and Andrew Culver traveled together in the
glitzy drug world, and both eventually wanted out.

Culver told his mother he had an appointment to see a psychologist who
might help him get over his cocaine addiction.

Erwin traded his drug-dealing, celebrity-studded life, serving
professional athletes and other VIP customers at the Blue Martini
nightclub, for Bible studies and family.

For both men, their decisions to break free of drugs came too
late.

On Wednesday, Erwin, 30, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison,
the minimum term for his conviction for criminal culpability in
Culver's drug-overdose death.

Culver's conversation with his mother, she says, was hours before he
died of a drug overdose at 35, leaving behind a 5-week-old daughter
and a young son.

Erwin changed his life after his arrest on drug dealing charges,
including selling Culver the cocaine and methadone that ended his life.

Members of both men's families assembled in a federal courtroom to
tell a judge about the men, about their gifts and what was lost in
November 2005 when Culver's life slipped away in a hotel room.

"He now prays for people in his old life," said Walter Willet, who
described himself as Erwin's spiritual adviser. "He is remorseful for
the things he did before he submitted his life to Christ. He has
radically changed."

Culver's widow, Christina, is left trying to explain to her children
why they no longer have a father. Her son, Logan, doesn't quite
understand. Madison will "never get to meet her father," she said.
"That's what kills me the most."

After her husband died, everything in her life "turned completely
upside down," she said. "I lost my house, my cars,
everything."

According to evidence in Erwin's trial, eight days after Culver was
found dead, Erwin was selling ecstasy to an informant.

Erwin sold the informant ecstasy and also said he could get methadone,
according to the evidence.

He offered a warning, however. Methadone is potent, he
said.

Do your research, he told the informant, Stephen Wilkinson, according
to a tape of a conversation played in the trial.

"I got my boy that," Erwin said. "My boy overdosed on the ...
[expletive] I got him."

On Wednesday, Erwin told U.S. District Judge James Moody that hearing
the evidence in his trial, "I sat here ashamed of the person I was and
upset at the person I was."

He said his drug-dealing days were "a wasted time in my life. ... That
life ended the day I was arrested and turned to my family and church
for unconditional acceptance."

"I would like to apologize," Erwin said, "to everyone who I affected
by my actions, including my family." He said he hopes to live a
positive life upon his release from prison.

Culver's mother, Celeste Rogers, said her son had a lot left to give.
He was smart, funny and generous and considered Erwin one of his best
friends.

"I really miss talking to my son," she said. "My son's life is over,
and it's really a shame because he had a lot more to do with his life.
He talked to me the day he died. He told me he had an appointment with
a drug counselor, a psychologist who specializes in drug treatment."

Culver never made it to that appointment.

"He did have an addiction to cocaine," Rogers said. "But the
methadone, that was you, Brandon. That's what killed him. It's not
right. It's not right at all."