Ex-YSU running back Shawn Patton sentenced in drug case

Staff report

CLEVELAND

A man who was a running back on Youngstown State University’s 1994 national championship football team has been sentenced to 27 months of incarceration on drug- distribution charges, with credit for the 20 months he’s already been held in federal detention.

Shawntel M. Patton, 39, drew the sentence Tuesday from U.S. District Court Judge Lesley Wells, who told him to self-report to federal prison to complete the final seven months of his incarceration when and where the U.S. Marshals direct him to do so.

Patton will be on six years of supervised release after prison.

On Feb. 16, Patton pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana between 2006 and 2010.

Patton was one of 28 people charged in a federal indictment with participating in a drug ring with ties to Mexican drug cartels.

Last week Judge Wells granted Patton’s request to be freed on bond to attend the funeral of his son, Darius Patton, a 20-year-old former Poland and University of Pittsburgh football player, who died by suicide Nov. 15 at his mother’s Farrell, Pa., residence.

Without objection from the U.S. attorney, Judge Wells released the elder Patton on a $50,000 unsecured bond.