Ex-Cheerleader Sentenced for Her Role in Drug Ring

A former Rams cheerleader who was the key prosecution witness against the team’s star cornerback and others involved in a major cocaine trafficking ring was sentenced Tuesday to four months in prison for her role in the drug network.

Tracy Ann Donoho, 22, wept and trembled as the sentence was read in U.S. District Court, ending what her father called “a hellacious two-year nightmare.”

Donoho was arrested in 1993 at an Atlanta airport after picking up a suitcase packed with 12 kilograms of cocaine, with an estimated street value of about $250,000. She testified against her onetime boyfriend, former Rams cornerback Darryl Henley, and four others.

Donoho had faced up to 10 years in federal prison and fines up to $4 million after pleading guilty to conspiracy to transport cocaine. However, federal prosecutors--citing her cooperation--recommended a one-year sentence.

Henley and the other defendants also are facing a decade in prison, although they are seeking a new trial based on allegations of jury improprieties.

Donoho’s attorney said Tuesday he is relieved that his client can see an end to the case in sight.

“She was a nice person who got caught up in a web of intrigue,” defense attorney Stephan A. DeSales said. “She was a 19-year-old kid, she was naive, and she was betrayed by someone she trusted. After she realized what had happened, she told the truth. Without her there was no case.”

Donoho testified last year that she believed she was ferrying only a suitcase full of cash when she was intercepted by federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Atlanta. She said she had made similar errands at the behest of Henley and his associates to earn extra money, and she tearfully conceded that she should have known.

Before reading her sentence, Judge Gary L. Taylor cited Donoho’s cooperation with prosecutors and the danger she and her family have faced following her testimony.

More than 60 supporters packed the court, a crowd that overflowed the gallery and the jury box. Family members and former classmates at Anaheim’s Esperanza High School milled in the hallway before the proceedings and comforted Donoho.

“I just want this to be over,” Donoho said while waiting. “In an hour my future will be decided, and it’s scary.”