Lamont Evans sentenced, nonetheless could also be deported

NEW YORK — A former assistant basketball coach at Oklahoma State and the College of South Carolina was sentenced to a few months in jail Friday for accepting bribes to hyperlink prime gamers with bribe-paying managers and monetary advisers.

U.S. District Choose Edgardo Ramos mentioned actions by Lamont Evans have been “maybe extra egregious” than these of two different ex-assistant basketball coaches he sentenced earlier within the week. He additionally ordered him to forfeit $22,000 and work 100 hours of neighborhood service.

Proof towards Evans contained recordings, together with one wherein he promised that athletes he recruited would signal with managers and monetary advisers that he really useful.

“Anyone else that come alongside. … I will bury them,” he was heard promising on one recorded name that was performed at a current trial of co-defendants.

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As Ramos introduced the sentence, he referenced letters that family and friends members of Evans had written that recounted the nice deeds he had carried out, notably on behalf of younger individuals.

“The people who wrote these letters wouldn’t acknowledge the Lamont Evans who comes throughout within the authorities’s movies,” the decide mentioned.

Evans, 41, instructed the decide that he thought he’d discovered “a straightforward option to earn a living” when he accepted $22,000 in bribes to work on behalf of bribe paying athlete handlers in 2016 and 2017.

“In hindsight and upon reflection, I knew that it was unsuitable,” he mentioned.

As he emerged from the courtroom and encountered a number of reporters, Evans mentioned: “It is one of many saddest days of my life.”

Prosecutors didn’t win the sentence of not less than 18 months in jail as they’d sought.

Assistant U.S. Lawyer Robert Boone had argued that Evans was extra culpable than others arrested within the probe as a result of he solicited bribes and items, together with a set of headphones, and traveled throughout the nation a number of occasions for conferences to rearrange them.

“It wasn’t a scenario the place individuals paying bribes have been coming to his home and throwing cash to him,” Boone mentioned.

Along with his September 2017 arrest, Evans misplaced his $600,000 job and the probability he would ultimately change into a head coach. On the time, he was at Oklahoma State.

His responsible plea in January to bribery conspiracy additionally may result in his deportation from the nation the place he has lived since age 2. He’s a citizen of Barbados.

Evans was charged in a case that exposed the function of corrupt coaches in a scheme to steer NBA-bound children to varsities or managers.

He was amongst 4 coaches who have been charged. All pleaded responsible to bribery conspiracy.

On Thursday, Emanuel “E-book” Richardson, previously an assistant basketball coach on the College of Arizona, was sentenced to a few months in jail.

On Wednesday, Tony Bland, former assistant basketball coach for the College of Southern California, was sentenced to 100 hours of neighborhood service however no jail time.

Chuck Individual, a former assistant coach at Auburn College, is awaiting sentencing.