Obama commutes drug sentence of South Bend man

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – President Barack Obama has commuted the 20-year sentence of a South Bend man imprisoned in 2004 after pleading guilty to federal drug-trafficking charges.

The South Bend Tribune reports that Robert L. Sleepers will be freed Oct. 1. The White House did not explain the reasoning behind Friday’s commutations of Sleepers and 41 others – most of whom also committed drug crimes.

Sleepers admitted to conspiring with two other men to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and crack cocaine to the South Bend area from 1998 to 2002. Sleepers – then 38 – was sentenced to 20 years in prison and 10 years of supervised release.

LaPorte attorney David Jones represented Sleepers. He says Sleepers’ guilty plea should have resulted in a lighter sentence.