COOK COUNTY, IL - A 21-year-old woman who smuggled a gun into the Cook County Jail as part of a scheme by three inmates to sue the county was sentenced to 3 years in prison.

Randi White, of the 3800 block of West Wellington Avenue, pleaded guilty before Criminal Court Judge Henry Simmons to one count of conspiracy to bring contraband into a prison.

White's fiance, Isiah Sherman, 20, and another man pleaded guilty to the same charge and received 2 years' probation.

Prosecutors charge that on Feb. 1, inmates Lorenzo Evans, Terry Martin, and Sherman's brother, Gregory, allowed themselves to be shot as part of a plot to file a lawsuit.

White could have faced up to 5 years in prison if the case had gone to trial and she had been convicted, Simmons said. She received the 3-year sentence as part of a plea deal with prosecutors, said Assistant Cook County State's Atty. David Navarro.

Navarro said White admitted in a hand-written statement that she brought the gun into the jail. She said that on Jan. 26, she smuggled the gun to Gregory Sherman. White did not speak in court, but Gregory Sherman Sr. defended her and his son, Isiah. He said he was against her pleading guilty to the charges.

"They never found any gun on her. She doesn't like the fact that she's been locked up, and she's got a little daughter," Sherman said. Isiah "should have gotten no time."