CHICAGO — President Barack Obama has shortened the sentences of four Chicago men who were convicted of drug crimes.
The four men, who were convicted in the 1990s and 2000s, were among 111 people who had their sentences commuted by the president on Tuesday.
Rudy Martinez, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1992, will now be out of prison by Dec. 28, according to a White House news release. He had been convicted of conspiracy, criminal enterprise and distributing drugs, among other crimes.
Martinez ran a "multimillion-dollar cocaine ring that stretched from Miami to Chicago to St. Paul," according to an April 1992 Tribune article. An Uptown native, Martinez told a judge at the time that he began selling drugs after filling in for his mother at her job and realizing how hard she worked for just $45 a week, according to the Tribune. Selling drugs was a "way out," he said.
Merlin Coleman, sentenced to 20 years in prison and 10 years supervised released in 2004, was convicted of possession with intent to distribute cocaine, among other charges. He supplied cocaine to a drug ring in Joliet, prosecutors said at the time. His sentenced has been commuted and will expire on Dec. 28.
Larry Martin, who had also faced a life in prison after being convicted of drug conspiracy in 1993, will now have to serve 30 years. That would mean he would be out of prison in 2023.
Antonio Jevon Gayden had his sentence halved: Originally sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in 2009, he will now only have to serve 10. He had been convicted of possessing with intent to distribute cocaine, among other charges.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
