NFL STAR GETS FOUR MONTHS IN DRUG CASE

In the summer of 2000, Jamal Lewis signed a $35 million NFL contract
and was ready to leave behind his days hanging out in a crime-ridden
Atlanta housing project.

But with the brightest imaginable future awaiting him, Lewis could not
shake off his past. It caught up to the football star Wednesday, when
he was sentenced to four months in prison for trying to help a friend
set up a drug deal.

The former athletic standout at Atlanta's Douglass High hopes to begin
serving his sentence Feb. 4 so he can be free when the Baltimore
Ravens begin training camp in early August. Following his stint in
prison, the all-pro running back must serve two months in an Atlanta
halfway house that, his lawyers hope, will allow him to work out in a
gym during the day and spend the nights in custody.

"Jamal Lewis has got his life and career back," one of his lawyers, Ed
Garland, said Wednesday after the sentencing hearing.

Lewis, 25, appeared in federal court on crutches, his leg in a cast
from recent ankle surgery.

"I'm truly sorry for what I did," Lewis told U.S. District Judge
Orinda Evans before she imposed the sentence.

Lewis will have his cast removed later this week, said Garland, who
asked that his client be allowed to serve his time at a federal prison
camp in Montgomery.

After pleading guilty in October to one count of using a cellphone to
set up a drug deal, Lewis served a two-game suspension and was fined
for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy. The punishment cost
him $761,000, his salary for two games.

Great expectations

Lewis seemed destined for greatness while playing for the Douglass
High Astros. From 1995 to 1997 he scored 69 touchdowns and earned a
football scholarship to the University of Tennessee. He was the NFL
Offensive Player of the Year in 2003 when he rushed for 2,066 yards,
the second-highest total for a single season.

People close to Lewis, whose mother was a prison warden, find it hard
to fathom he is headed to prison. The young man beyond the statistics
is a regular churchgoer, friends say, who was influenced by people
trying to take advantage of him.

"I told him, 'It's OK, you can say no and not be a bad guy,' " said
Kontonious Morrow, who played defensive back at Douglass with Lewis.
"Once fame comes, also come a lot of leeches. That's why I was telling
him, 'Tell those people no.' "

Darion Hutcherson, another high school teammate, described Lewis as "a
great, loving, caring person who'll give you his last and do anything
to help anybody." Now a minister in Columbia, Hutcherson said he and
his high school friend promised each other they would stay out of
trouble and put God first.

"A lot of people didn't make it out of where we came from," Hutcherson
said. "We weren't in a higher-class neighborhood, and a lot of people
didn't have goals. We set out to achieve goals and, with God's help,
we did."

Even so, Lewis, who grew up in northwest Atlanta, often ventured into
the drug-infested Bowen Homes projects. On June 23, 2000, about one
month before he signed his lucrative rookie contract with the Ravens,
Lewis took a phone call from a woman who was working undercover with
the FBI and posing as a drug trafficker.

A fateful meeting

Lewis introduced the informant to Angelo Jackson, his childhood friend
from the projects. Over the next month, Jackson would meet with the
informant in meetings that were videotaped surreptitiously by the FBI.
Jackson was arrested before he consummated the deal, and he and Lewis
were indicted four years later on drug conspiracy charges.

Lewis initially denied the allegations. But in October he pleaded
guilty, attributing his crime to "a mistake . . . when I was 20 years
old that I am paying heavily for."

"He kind of had one foot out the door, ready to leave his old life
here," said Don Samuel, another of Lewis' lawyers. "And he knew better."

Had Lewis been convicted at trial, the football star faced a
career-ending five to 10 years in prison.

Before accepting the plea bargain, Evans, the chief federal court
judge in Atlanta, noted that a U.S. probation officer who reviewed the
case recommended a lengthier prison term. But Evans called the
agreement "fair" and the result of "heavy negotiations" by prosecutors
and Lewis' defense team.

The judge also said she believed the U.S. attorney's office was
willing to grant the deal because it "did not have as strong a case as
it would have liked against Mr. Lewis."

Evans noted that only one witness --- the undercover informant ---
could directly tie Lewis to the crime. The Journal-Constitution has
reported that the informant, Tomeka Richard, had swindled victims from
Texas to Georgia and committed fraud during and after the time she
worked for the FBI.

"She had a questionable background," Evans said. The judge added the
prospects were "very high" that a jury would not have reached a
unanimous guilty verdict had Lewis stood trial.

Friend sentenced

Evans sentenced Jackson to 37 months in prison --- far less than the
five years he was expected to get. "It would have truly been an
injustice for Jamal to get four months in prison and Jackson 60
months," said David Botts, one of Jackson's lawyers. "I think,
ultimately, the judge felt the same way."

When Jackson pleaded guilty a few weeks after Lewis did, Jackson's
other attorney, Steve Sadow, contended Lewis was to have shared in the
proceeds of Jackson's cocaine deal. Lewis' lawyers strongly denied the
allegation.

Citing the discrepancy, the Journal-Constitution and the Baltimore Sun
asked Evans to unseal Lewis' pre-sentence investigation report
prepared by the probation officer. But Evans denied the newspapers'
request.