District Judge Dave Gamble sentenced two teenagers to prison Tuesday in separate cases of trafficking in controlled substances.
Matthew Cumiford, 19, and Travis Woodbury, 18, each were sentenced to five years in prison.
Gamble told the defendants they must serve a minimum of two years before they are eligible for parole.
"If there's anything worse than sentencing a 19-year-old to prison, it's sending an 18-year-old," Gamble said.
"It's really, really frustrating to see kids come up through the juvenile system and get sentenced to prison," he said to Woodbury.
"When you have the support you have from your family, I don't see how some stranger like me is going to make a difference."
Woodbury, declining to comment, said he didn't know what to say to the judge.
"I feel like I'm talking to some piece of stone," Gamble said.
Woodbury said he trafficked in cocaine to raise rent money. He told the judge he was paid $100 and received "some drugs."
He and two co-defendants sold $8,000 worth of cocaine to undercover informants in January in the parking lot of the MontBleu Casino. Officers purchased 56 grams of cocaine with a street value of $8,000 from the trio. Cumiford also dealt in cocaine.
"You're 19 years old. This is your second felony and you have a list of juvenile offenses as long as my arm," Gamble said to Cumiford. "Every time I see you, or Judge Gibbons sees you, nothing we have done has changed you."
Cumiford said he was earning $30 an hour and about to buy a house when he was arrested.
"This is more juvenile than most of the stuff you were doing as a juvenile," Gamble said. "Can't you be a big man in a right way instead of being a big man in a wrong way?"
Cumiford was arrested in March in Indian Hills with several other juveniles and young adults who were dealing in cocaine.
"I'm sorry for doing this," Cumiford said. "I know that I can do things right as soon as I get another chance."
