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Happy birthday Evelyn Ann Occhiato!

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Mele’s Musings: The joys of coping with a fractured work-sleep schedule

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; A promoter charged in a 2015 shooting that wounded another man inside the Passion Lounge pleaded guilty to a weapons charge Friday and was sentenced to two to four years in state prison.</p><p>Ronald Drayton, 48, of Abbott Street in Wilkes-Barre, admitted in Luzerne County Court to a felony charge of firearms not to be carried without a license. Judge David W. Lupas accepted the plea and ran Drayton&#8217;s sentence concurrent to a 57-month federal sentence he is serving for cocaine trafficking.</p><p>Senior Deputy Attorney General Bernard Anderson said Drayton carried an &#8220;unloaded but operable firearm&#8221; in the Scott Street nightclub when Marcese Cloward Grant was shot in the leg in July 2015. Grant survived the injury.</p><p>Drayton, the founder of Black N&#8217; Out Entertainment, was at the nightclub promoting Brooklyn rapper Troy Ave.</p><p>He initially faced aggravated assault for allegedly shooting Grant, but the charge was dismissed in lower court. Seven counts of recklessly endangering another person and a weapons charge were withdrawn in exchange for his plea, according to court records.</p><p>Pushing for a lesser sentence, defense attorney Theron Solomon argued Drayton wasn&#8217;t from Wilkes-Barre but treated the city like it was his home through charitable acts and community involvement.</p><p>The father of two raised money for Toys for Tots and coached youth basketball, Solomon said, and remained largely out of trouble since a 1988 robbery conviction in New York.</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a productive member of society, a loving father and successful businessman,&#8221; Solomon said.</p><p>Anderson, however, argued the weapons charge wasn&#8217;t the first time Drayton broke the law since 1988.</p><p>Drayton, he said, served 40 months on a 2001 parole violation and pleaded guilty last year to his role in a cocaine trafficking ring that brought the drug to the region from Puerto Rico. He was one of seven to plead guilty in the case.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Joe Dolinsky</p><p>jdolinsky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Joe Dolinsky at 570-991-6110 or on Twitter @JoeDolinskyTL</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Event promoter sentenced on weapons charge from 2015 Passion Lounge shooting