A 29-year-old British woman who was caught smuggling £15 million worth of cocaine has narrowly avoided a staggering 60-year sentence.
Kim Hall, a Teeside native, faced six decades behind bars in the United States after homeland security officials last August discovered her two holiday suitcases were packed with 43kg of the Class A substance as she transferred flights en route from Mexico to Britain at Chicago’s O’Hare airport.
She was charged with the manufacture or delivery of cocaine, which can be categorised as a Class X Felony in Illinois, depending on the amount of drugs involved, and can carry a jail sentence of up to 60 years.
Such a sentence would mean she wouldn't be a free woman until she was 89 years old.
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However, after striking a plea bargain deal with prosecutors, a Chicago judge announced on Monday (8 September) that she had been sentenced to just a fraction of the possible sentence, at just six years in prison in return for a guilty plea.
What's more, it is understood there is a possibility the beautician will be home in two years after taking into account time already served, plus early release for good behaviour, which typically happens halfway through a prison sentence.
Initially, prosecutors said they might cut that time to 30 years if she entered a plea.
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Brandon Carter, Hall's attorney, explained that he had negotiated lower terms for her in a plea bargain as she was not a US citizen and the court had no interest in a foreign national being held for an extended period.
He told ITV: "She's not a citizen of the United States, let alone a local of Chicago, so we have no business really in keeping her here."
Carter added: "Of course, when you're facing 30 years, something that's less than that is going to be a godsend."
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The prosecution in the case accepted that Hall was forced by two British men to take the suitcases, which she believed were filled with $250,000 (£185,744) in cash.
"I agreed to it because there was no reason not to. It was just money and I didn't see anything wrong in it," she told The Sun, explaining that the pair of Brits, whom she met on a previous break in Portugal, threatened her and held a gun to her head to take the two cases home with her.
"One of them dragged me off the bed by my hair and held a handgun to my head. He said, 'I'll f**king shoot you.' It was the most frightening thing I've ever experienced in my life."
Rhiannon Ingle