Misty Croslin gets 25 years

PALATKA -- In final pleas Monday, Misty Croslin and her father asked for fairness and leniency before she was given 25 years in prison on a series of prescription drug-trafficking cases.

The sentencing came a month shy of two years since Croslin became the focus in the case of HaLeigh Cummings, who Croslin was watching when the 5-year-old Satsuma kindergartner vanished from home.

Reluctantly, but prodded because she wanted him to speak at the hearing in Palatka, a distraught Hank Croslin Sr. said his daughter was only misguided.

"The only thing I would really like to say is she wasn't a drug dealer, she never was," he said. "She just got caught up in something stupid."

His daughter, who came teary-eyed into the courtroom, asked Circuit Judge Terry LaRue to be "fair, that's all."

She said she had made bad choices.

"I have to pay for what I've done," she said.

Under minimum mandatory sentences in the seven drug cases, Croslin, 19, faced up to 89 years in prison, but LaRue ordered sentences in the cases to run concurrently under the longest minimum sentence -- 25 years. She will get credit for the year she has spent in jail and the time will also run concurrent with a 25-year sentence in a separate case in St. Johns County.

A maximum sentence on each of the counts is 30 years under state law.

For the still-missing little girl's family, the resolution of the drug case that became intertwined with HaLeigh's disappearance didn't offer any relief.

HaLeigh's mother, Crystal Sheffield, was in the courtroom and said afterward that she believes Croslin knows more about what happened to the little girl.

"It's all in her hands," she said. "She has all the answers."

HaLeigh was not in Sheffield's custody when she disappeared, and was living with Croslin and HaLeigh's father in Satsuma. Croslin was 17 and eventually married and divorced Ronald Cummings.

Croslin called 911 about 3:30 a.m. Feb. 10, 2009, to report she had woken to find HaLeigh gone. Cummings had been at work.

Intense searches and an investigation that drew international attention failed to find the little girl, though Putnam County Sheriff Jeff Hardy has said he believes she is dead.

At one point, detectives searched a section of the St. Johns River near Satsuma where HaLeigh disappeared. No evidence was found that the body had been dumped there.

Four others who have connections to the missing girl, including Cummings and Croslin's brother Hank "Tommy" Croslin Jr., were also arrested in the drug cases. Cummings and Tommy Croslin, Cummings' cousin Hope Sykes and Misty

Croslin's friend Donna Brock have all been sentenced to 15 years apiece for participating in at least one of the trafficking cases.

Croslin was sentenced on counts of dealing in prescription narcotics, including oxcodone and hydrocodone pills, in recorded transactions with an undercover detective working with the Putnam County Sheriff's Office.

She will also owe nearly $2 million in fines in the separate cases, her attorney said. She also will have five years of drug-offender probation when she is released.

She has been housed in the state prison system since late last year, following sentencing in St. Johns.

Croslin will be in her mid-40s when she is released.

Tuesday, Cumming's mother, Teresa Neves, said the family will continue to hold vigils to keep HaLeigh's case alive. She said her son has always focused on finding his daughter.

"He's never let go," she said. "Where is the justice for HaLeigh?"

Monday was the final sentencing for Misty Croslin after she and her associates were arrested in a prescription drug investigation. Here are the sentences for the people involved:

Misty Croslin -- 25 years

Ronald Cummings -- 15 years

Hank "Tommy" Croslin Jr. -- 15 years

Hope Sykes -- 15 years

Donna Brock -- 15 years