14 years yesterday.

Peyton, 23, of Brooklyn, New York, is the son of the pastor of the Jesus House of Prayer in New York where he was the director of two choirs.

He is also a former soldier in the US Army. Crown counsel Charlene Scott did not suggest a prison term but said that the offence was a serious one and there were no mitigating circumstances.

Nine of the 12 members of the Supreme Court jury found him guilty of importing and possessing more than $243,000 worth of cocaine.

But Peyton's lawyer Elizabeth Christopher said that his client's youth and previous good character were proper mitigating factors.

She pointed out that Peyton was an elder in a Pentecostal Church in New York, and mentioned his work with the choirs.

"The purpose of the youth choirs was to keep kids out of trouble,'' she said.

"He has never been arrested before coming to Bermuda and he has used his time on remand at Westgate to conduct classes in Bible study.'' Ms Christopher said Peyton was divorced but had no children. However, he was also giving financial support to his ex-wife's three children.

Mr. Justice Ward, noting that Peyton had admitted that he lied to Police on at least two occasions, interjected: "If he is a man of the church one can expect that his word could be relied upon.'' Ms Christopher said the court should discount his sentence so that society can reap some benefit from person's like her client. She suggested a term of ten years as the appropriate sentence.

But Mr. Justice Ward was unswayed. He said: "He has not set a good example for those children in the church when they hear about what he did...he wiped out whatever good he did when he decided to make the run with the cocaine.'' Mr. Justice Ward then handed down 14 year concurrent prison terms to the charges of importing the cocaine and possessing the drug with intent to supply. On Tuesday, a Supreme Court jury returned majority guilty verdicts to the charges that Peyton imported and possessed $243,000 worth of cocaine with intent to supply.

The verdict brought the week-long retrial to a conclusion. Last December a Supreme Court jury was unable to reach a verdict after the four-man, eight-woman jury deliberated for four-and-a-half hours.

Drug importer jailed 14 years During the trial, Peyton was steadfast in his assertion that he did not know, suspect or have reason to suspect that the baby items he carried in a duffel bag contained drugs.

This contrasted with a statement he made to Police where he admitted that he knew there was contraband among the baby items he was carrying to give to a woman called Sharon.

He also admitted that he was paid $1,000 to bring the items to Bermuda.

When pressed, Peyton said that he wrote this in his statement because of inducements and suggestions that Det. Con. Rudolph Richardson made to him.

Peyton was arrested at the Bermuda International Airport around 9.30 p.m. on May 22, 1996 after a Customs Officer found two bags of cocaine hidden inside two bottles of baby powder.

The drugs were 64 percent pure and a Police expert testified that they were worth $243,166 on the street if sold in half gram wraps for $125 each.

It emerged that Peyton lied when he told Customs officer O'Brien Roberts that he had bought the baby products from a store in Manhattan when in fact someone else had given them to him.

Additionally, it came to light that the address he gave to Police -- 36 Hermitage Road did not exist -- even though he knew that he was going to be staying at the Sandpiper Guest House.