Ex-SDSU Basketball Player Sentenced in Cocaine Cases

Gerald Murray, a former center on the San Diego State University basketball team, was sentenced Tuesday to five years and four months in state prison after pleading guilty in two cocaine cases.

Murray, 23, was given four years for his first guilty plea, for selling $120 worth of cocaine to an undercover police officer Nov. 21.

San Diego Municipal Judge Lisa Guy-Schall imposed a consecutive sentence of one year and four months in the second case, which involved possession of 86 grams of cocaine in Murray’s hotel room May 13. Murray pleaded guilty last month to possession of cocaine for sale.

Guy-Schall said she would have placed Murray on probation in the first case had he not been arrested while awaiting sentencing for the drugs found in his hotel room.

Rarely Used Procedure

The judge denied probation in both cases, but she did sentence Murray under a rarely used procedure that allows her to retain jurisdiction and possibly reduce the sentence later.

Guy-Schall said she will reconsider the sentence only if the state Department of Corrections refers Murray back to her with a recommendation to reduce it.

Defense attorney Gary Bloch urged the judge to follow the recommendation of the Probation Department, which urged probation in both cases.

“If you send Mr. Murray to prison, I’m afraid Mr. Murray will go through like a revolving door. If you give him probation, you’ll give him a chance to rehabilitate himself,” Bloch said.

“He lost a senior year in playing basketball,” Bloch said. “He has suffered and caused embarrassment for himself, his team.”

Calling Murray “a twice-convicted drug dealer,” Deputy District Atty. Doug Gregg said Murray lied to the court when he promised he would stay out of trouble after pleading guilty in the first case.

“His promises aren’t worth anything at all,” Gregg said. “He shows a total lack of remorse.”