TAM­PA-A fed­er­al judge sen­tenced Gram­my-win­ning reg­gae singer Bu­ju Ban­ton to ten years in prison yes­ter­day, the low­est sen­tence legal­ly al­lowed for his role in a large co­caine traf­fick­ing deal in 2009.

The 38-year-old Ja­maican record­ing artiste got a break when US Dis­trict Judge James S Moody threw out a gun con­vic­tion, which would have added an­oth­er five years to the min­i­mum sen­tence. Ban­ton's at­tor­ney, David Markus, said with time al­ready served and good be­hav­ior, he could be out in six years.

In a state­ment he wrote af­ter the sen­tenc­ing, Ban­ton-whose giv­en name is Mark Myrie-thanked fam­i­ly, fans and sup­port­ers from around the world who flood­ed the court file with let­ters of sup­port. "The days that lie ahead are filled with de­spair, but I have courage and grace and I'm hope­ful, and that is suf­fi­cient to car­ry me through," he said in the state­ment, which was read by Markus. "The man is not dead...Don't call him a ghost." Ban­ton, dressed in gray jail scrubs and shack­led at the an­kles, did not speak in court and did not re­act when Moody an­nounced the sen­tence.

The tall, thin, dread­locked singer blew a kiss and waved to his sub­dued sup­port­ers as he was led away.

A ju­ry found him guilty in Feb­ru­ary of con­spir­a­cy to pos­sess with the in­tent to dis­trib­ute co­caine, pos­ses­sion of a firearm in fur­ther­ance of a drug traf­fick­ing of­fence and us­ing a tele­phone to fa­cil­i­tate a drug traf­fick­ing of­fence. Moody threw out the gun charge, ac­knowl­edg­ing that Ban­ton had no idea oth­ers in­volved in the con­spir­a­cy were car­ry­ing guns, which was the ba­sis for the charge. He was not con­vict­ed of car­ry­ing a weapon him­self. (AP)