Subway's Jared Fogle Is Sentenced To More Than 15 Years In Prison

A federal judge in Indianapolis sentenced Jared Fogle this afternoon to more than 15 years in prison on charges of possession and distribution of child pornography and traveling across state lines for sex with a minor.

Prosecutors sought a 12½-year sentence, while Fogle's attorneys sought five years. Judge Tanya Walton Pratt chose to hand down a harsher sentence of 15 years and 8 months in prison, followed by lifetime supervision after his release. 

Pratt said Fogle was living a double life and engaged in perversion and lawlessness. She also rejected a defense expert's opinion concerning Fogle's sexual disorder.

'There's no such thing as being a mild pedophile,' Pratt said. 'That's not a diagnosis.'

The judge recommended that Fogle serve his sentence in a prison in Littleton, Colorado, which has a program for sex offenders. 

Fogle was seen blowing kisses and waving at his relatives sobbing in the first row before he was led away in handcuffs by US Marshals. 

Before learning his fate, a chocked-up Fogle broke his silence for the first time about his sex crimes against minors, expressing remorse for his actions and a desire to become a decent person in the future.

With his voice cracking and tears in his eyes, the 38-year-old former Subway pitchman said he can't undo the past but will do everything he can to be a better man and father when he gets out of prison. 

'Although I realise that I can never change my deplorable past choices, I so regret that I let so many of you down,' he told the court. 'Not a day will go by when I don't think about what I did to [the victims].' 

Fogle said he was sorry for having failed to seek treatment for what defense experts described earlier in the hearing as his hypersexuality and mild pedophilia years ago.

'I became dependent on alcohol, pornography and prostitutes,' Fogle said from the stand. 

Upon his release from prison, the father of two said he hopes to help other sex offenders and inmates. 

'I want to become a good, decent person,' Fogle said.  

Fogle's emotional statement came after he pleaded guilty this morning to child pornography and sex crime charges, telling a federal judge he understands he will likely go to prison.

In closing arguments, Fogle's defense lawyers asked for leniency for their client, whom attorney Andrew DeVooght described as 'pathetic' and 'passive.'

In his appeal for a shorter sentence for Fogle, DeVooght argued that he has already been severely punished, having lost his career, marriage and reputation in the wake of his arrest.

John Bradford, a professor at the University of Ottawa in Canada, testified by phone Thursday at Fogle's sentencing hearing that the defendant appears to have had a compulsive eating disorder and that he began to develop hypersexuality shortly after losing more than 200lbs by eating Subway every day, twice a day.