Former NCAA basketball standout Jarred Shaw has been sentenced in Indonesia after he was arrested seven months ago for possessing marijuana gummies.
The 35-year-old basketball player, who had a career overseas and most recently played for the Tangerang Hawks in the Indonesian Basketball League (IBL), was sentenced on Wednesday (Dec. 10) to 26 months in prison on drug possession charges, per Andscape. He will serve the remainder of his sentence in Indonesia, where he has received a lifetime ban from the IBL. Indonesia has some of the strictest drug laws in the world, and Shaw was facing the death penalty for the drug charges he was found guilty of.
The judge in the case found him guilty of drug possession, but he managed to avoid trafficking enhancements to the charge. “He was facing a possible death sentence and was in a dark place, so now having an out date means so much to him,” West said. “This verdict gives him a chance to get home and be reunited with his mother and his family.”
Shaw was arrested in May at the lobby of his apartment in Tangerang hours after he finished a game with the Hawks. He was collecting a package that contained THC-infused gummies, that was shipped from Thailand. Shaw said that he purchased the gummies to help with his Crohn’s disease symptoms, which he was diagnosed with in 2010 during his time at Oklahoma State.
“I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong,” Shaw said in October. “I had no idea about the laws here.” Donte West, who has advocated for Shaw during his trial, said that the sentence was the best possible outcome. “He was facing a possible death sentence and was in a dark place, so now having an out date means so much to him,” West said. “This verdict gives him a chance to get home and be reunited with his mother and his family.”
West, who works with the Last Prisoner Project but advocated for Shaw separate from the organization, said there’s still more work to do. “With Crohn’s disease, we just want to make sure that he doesn’t have any life-threatening complications while in prison,” said West. “While it’s a relief to Jarred that he was sentenced to 26 months, we’re still hopeful we can get him home next year so he can have access to the best doctors.”
