By David Eck
Enquirer contributor

LEBANON - A 74-year-old Waynesville landlord and retired executive was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday after a jury last week convicted him of possession of crack cocaine.

William Heriot was also fined $10,000 and received a five-year driver's license suspension from Warren County Common Pleas Judge James Flannery in an emotional hearing. The judge denied a request to release Heriot on bond pending an appeal.

Heriot, who owns rental properties in Waynesville and Montgomery County and had been an executive of a Dayton foundry, maintained that he was tricked into buying 26.3 grams of crack cocaine from an undercover agent in October 2003.

"I was caught between a rock and a hard spot," he said, his voice breaking. "I've always believed that we have the best laws in the world. Inadvertently ... I broke that law."

He faced a mandatory three-year prison sentence, and could have received up to 10 years.

Heriot was investigated by the Warren-Clinton Drug and Strategic Task Force, with assistance from the Combined Agency for Narcotics Enforcement in Montgomery County. Authorities had received information that properties owned by Heriot were being used for trafficking of drugs, prosecutors said.

Jay Revelson, Heriot's attorney, said the mandatory three-year sentence is harsh enough.

"I've never been in front of a court with a criminal defendant of this age before," Revelson said. "He has absolutely no prior criminal record that I know of."

But Flannery maintained that Heriot was active in the drug trade, and chastised him for seeking to profit from those with a drug addiction. "You're simply making profit," the judge said. "You're involved in the drug business."

As he was led out of the courtroom, Heriot and his wife each whispered "I love you." His wife then collapsed, sobbing, into the arms of a friend.

E-mail daveck@fuse.net