



"It all rests on that initial decision to sell drugs for money," U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson said before sentencing Carlton to 20 years and 6 months in prison. "It's as bad as it gets."


Carlton's lawyer, Alexander Reichert, said during Thursday's hearing that the government wrongly fixated on his client as the "worst actor they had ever seen" when there were others in the conspiracy who were just as culpable and received lesser sentences. Reichert said Carlton agreed to be interviewed for a documentary on synthetic drugs as a public service.


"He is desperate to make amends for what he has done," Reichert said.

It wasn't immediately clear what prison term Reichert had been seeking, and he left without taking questions after the hearing.



Erickson ordered Carlton to pay back $385,000 in drug proceeds.


"The response by state, local and federal law enforcement in the case was unbelievable," Myers said. "From the time these kids were found deceased until search warrants were executed in Texas was approximately two months. They dismantled an international drug trafficking organization and undoubtedly saved lives."

Debbie Bjerk, as she has in previous sentencing hearings in the case, showed a video of her son in his football uniform during a parents' day event eight months before he died. She also put a photo on a big screen showing Christian celebrating what would be his last birthday. He would have turned 21 on Tuesday.

"He not only stole the lives of Christian and Elijah, he stole the lives of the other 14 defendants before him," she said of Carlton. "There are no healing words I can say today that can convey the magnitude of our loss."


The judge said he received 25 letters of support from Carlton's relatives, friends and co-workers and believed that by most accounts that Carlton was "a devoted husband, good father, excellent employee and worked hard."



"If I could turn back the hands of time, I would," he said, fighting back tears. "I have two children of my own, and what happened to your children is my greatest fear as a parent."