90-Year Old WWII Vet Gets 3 Years in Prison for Running Drugs

At least he didn't get life

05.09.2014 | News | Matt Fox |

Man, watching the above report actually made me feel kind of sorry for this guy. He’s 90-year old World War II veteran Leo Sharp, and he has just been sentenced to three years in the slammer for hauling over a ton of cocaine to Michigan.

“All I can tell you, your honor, is I’m really heartbroken I did what I did,” he said to U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds. “But it’s done.”

There wasn’t any dispute over what the frail senior citizen did. He admitted to the court that last fall, he drove all that coke for a Mexican drug cartel, and was paid over $1 million. Nineteen people were charged in the case.

Darryl Goldberg, Leo’s defense attorney, focused on the man’s past, as he attempted to convey the stories of how Sharp fought Nazis in Italy and was awarded a Bronze Star. “This is not how we honor our heroes, whether they’ve fallen from grace or not,” Goldberg said. While reading a history of the Battle of Mount Battaglia inside the courtroom, Judge Edmunds interrupted him.

Goldberg also warned that Sharp’s dementia would be a burden for the prison system, insisting that his condition led him to use “bad judgment” and become a drug mule.

Sharp personally delivered brief remarks as well, saying that he wished to grow Hawaiian papayas on his property in Florida to pay off his $500,000 penalty to the government. That won’t be possible at all now, since the government will be seizing and selling his land. No wonder Leo is so heartbroken. On the other hand, he did get a significant break, as the government was seeking to put him away for five years amidst sentencing guidelines that actually call for a minimum of 14 years.

Still, if you killed a bunch of Nazis back in the day, I think there are a few things you should get a pass on…especially if you don’t have much time left anyway. What say you? Comment below.

Matt Fox

Senior Editor

Fox has history in broadcasting that spans two decades. From his early days as an FM host and club DJ in the mid-90′s to his later experiences in political talk radio, he has always had a knack for combining topical news with his love for popular culture. Those experiences culminated in his position as executive producer for several radio shows featured in the TALKERS Heavy 100. Originally from New York, Fox has made the great pilgrimage down to sunny south Florida.

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