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On Tuesday, inside a federal courtroom in Manhattan, Darrin Roker rose to his feet when the judge invited him to speak. He wore a tan, prison-issue uniform. Shackles circled his ankles, according to reporting by The Tribune.

Roker, a former chief petty officer in the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, told the court that his cancer had become a “monster.” Some days, he said, he sleeps for as long as twenty-three hours. Standing before the judge, he asked for “another chance,” to return home to his family.

“That’s all I can ask, and thank God,” Roker said. “I want a chance to go back home to my family. I have lost everything in the Bahamas–my job, my pension. I have nothing else but my family.”

Roker was sentenced to four years in a United States prison after admitting that he used his position of trust to assist drug traffickers linked to a conspiracy that moved more than 1,000 kilograms of cocaine through the Bahamas and into the United States. Prosecutors said he provided sensitive law-enforcement information, including intelligence shared by the U.S. Coast Guard and OPBAT, in exchange for bribes.

The judge described the offences as extremely serious. Under federal guidelines, Roker had faced a significantly longer sentence. But the court also heard extensive medical evidence showing that his prostate cancer had returned aggressively and was now terminal. His PSA levels, filings said, had increased fourfold.

Roker is dying.

As the proceedings unfolded, Roker smiled briefly at his wife, seated in the gallery. She dabbed her eyes with a tissue throughout the hearing. Two other family members sat nearby.

In court, his attorney, Martin Roth, acknowledged his client’s guilt. “He was weak,” Roth said. “He wasn’t himself. In that moment of weakness, he joined the conspiracy and took the $20, 000,” according to The Tribune. Roth also pointed to Roker bending to pressures, operating in ‘a culture long affected by drug trafficking and corruption.’

Roker pleaded guilty in October, becoming the first of thirteen defendants to do so in a wide-ranging case that implicated senior law-enforcement officials of the Royal Bahamas Police Force—Chief Superintendent Elvis Curtis and a sergeant. His cooperation and his medical condition weighed heavily in the court’s final decision.

*Courtroom details in this report are drawn from reporting by The Tribune.

The family of 75-year-old Gayle Jarrett, the woman who died in a boat mishap in the Bahamas last week, is in a financial struggle as they prepare to bury her.

Granddaughter Kayla Estep says the family is struggling to find the resources to bury Jarrett.

Estep who accompanied her on the Blue Lagoon excursion boat with seven other family members before it sank in waters just thirty minutes after departure, organized a GoFundMe, hoping to raise $2000 for the burial.

“As of right now, this is a financial struggle for us all.

“My grandma wanted to be buried in Missouri with her parents. However we are from Colorado and would like to do the funeral in Montana but [we] also would like to have a memorial in Colorado for those that can’t make it to Missouri,” Estep said.

Jarrett described as benevolent, had used her inheritance money to take the family on a five-day cruise aboard Royal Caribbean, and Nassau was only her second stop before the tragedy.

“She was giving, she gave and gave and gave.”

Jarrett, wearing an oxygen tank, was also the only passenger who died among the 119 others scrambling as the boat tilted in the choppy seas and eventually sunk before passengers were rescued.

“She was basically an angel on Earth. She had the biggest heart.

“She believed in God like no other.”

Estep said Jarrett was like a second mother and a best friend.

“Her and I just loved shopping together, that was one of our favorite things to do together.”

They were originally supposed to get on a different boat, but that one was too full for their family.

According to Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander, the autopsy report revealed her death was not due to drowning but some other situation not explained.

Her husband, also on the ferry, was seen weeping over her body.

The family said the accident was preventable. Blue Lagoon said it is undertaking a “rigorous investigation.”

The grand-daughter of 75-year-old Gayle Jarrett who died when a Blue Lagoon boat capsized in the Bahamas, contends her death was preventable.

“That’s up to whoever owns the ferry that the crew is properly prepared for an accident, and they were not prepared for this,” Kayla Estep told CBS News.

Jarrett was the sole passenger on the excursion boat to die as 118 other passengers scurried to stay afloat as the boat sank in waters near Blue Lagoon, just 30 minutes after they set sail on Tuesday.

Jarrett in the bottom deck with Estep and seven other family members, was wearing an oxygen device on her back at the time of the incident when it got caught around a metal as water flooded the sinking vessel.

“Even though she could go without oxygen, the fear I think took over, because the waves kept coming in through the window and taking my grandma and my grandpa underwater, over and over, and my grandmother was stuck,” Estep said.

Just Thursday, two days after the terrifying incident, Commissioner of Police Clayton Fernander in a press conference revealed that Jarrett of Broomfield, did not drown, according to autopsy results. He did not specify the exact cause of death, though.

“There was nothing to cut, no emergency supplies on that ferry,” Estep insisted.

“The very first thing I did was throw a life vest on my grandma.”

Social media videos show a teetering boat as passengers stood on the left side screaming and outfitted with life vests.

“She ended up sliding down to the right side where all the water was.”

“All of the passengers were waiting for crew instruction, and we didn’t get it. Then, one person jumped off the top floor and we all followed,” Estep said.

While scrambling to get her children and other family members off the boat, Estep’s grandfather and father stayed behind, trying to get Jarrett out.

Estep said the captain also tried to assist.

Blue Lagoon said on Sunday, it has launched a “rigorous and independent forensic investigation.”

Featured Image: Gayle Jarrett is shown in happier times