Lewis sentenced to four months in jail for drug deal

ATLANTA -- Baltimore Ravens running back Jamal Lewis was sentenced to four months in jail Wednesday for using a cell phone to try to set up a drug deal about 4½ years ago.

The sentence issued in federal court was what Lewis expected under an agreement reached with prosecutors in October.

Lewis, who tried to set up the deal a few months after he was the No. 5 overall pick in the 2000 NFL draft, also will spend two months in a halfway house and perform 500 hours of community service following his prison term.

Prosecutors agreed to drop more serious drug conspiracy and attempted cocaine possession charges.

"I'm truly sorry for what I did," Lewis said to U.S. District Judge Orinda Evans.

Explaining the short sentence, the judge said the government didn't have a strong case and noted the only witness against Lewis was an informant with a lengthy criminal record.

Evans said she was also giving Lewis "credit for stepping up to the bar" and admitting his guilt.

Jamal Lewis tells the judge: 'I'm sorry for my actions.' (AP)

The football player has until Feb. 4 to surrender to allow him time to have a cast removed from his right ankle, the judge said. Lewis recently had surgery on the foot. Evans said she will recommend that Lewis serve his incarceration at a federal prison camp at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala. The community confinement will be served at a halfway house in Atlanta.

Defense lawyer Ed Garland said the sentence was fair and allows for Lewis to return to the Ravens next season.

"Jamal Lewis has his life and his career back," Garland told reporters outside court.

Lewis was suspended for two games by the NFL after his guilty plea; the Ravens finished the season 9-7 and missed the playoffs.

Lewis, a former star at Tennessee, could have faced at least 10 years in prison if convicted of the conspiracy charge, but likely would have received a shorter sentence under federal guidelines. In 1997, he pleaded guilty to a shoplifting charge in suburban Atlanta, but officials agreed to wipe his record clean if he complied with his probation.

In the drug case, Lewis was accused of helping broker a cocaine deal for childhood friend Angelo Jackson during conversations with a government informant in Atlanta.