Updated 12:30 p.m.
 
Supplying heroin to two teens who suffered non-fatal overdoses brought a Roanoke woman a 20-year prison sentence this morning in federal court. And conspiring to distribute the drug brought another woman a 38-month term.
 
Cynthia Kaye Nichols, 41, and Meghan Rae Jones, 25, were in U.S. District Court in Roanoke as part of three linked heroin cases that authorities said raised alarms about spreading use of the drug among young people. Eleven people were convicted of drug and firearm charges in the three cases.
 
Nichols pleaded guilty in May to conspiring to distribute heroin used in connection with a serious injury. Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Wolthuis said then that a 19-year-old girl and 17-year-old boy separately obtained heroin from Nichols and overdosed on it. In both cases, police or rescue workers were able to revive the teens. Neither of the teens was charged with any crimes, Wolthuis said.
 
This morning, Wolthuis called the case "tragic in a couple of ways" and said Nichols had started drinking at age 8 and had been a substance abuser since she was 12.
 
Nichols told U.S. District Judge James Turk that she had thought she was helping heroin addicts by helping them get the drugs that would keep them from suffering withdrawal sickness. Now that she was no longer using heroin herself, she thought differently, she said.
 
"This has shown me how fragile life is," Nichols said, adding that she hoped the teens who had been her customers had stopped using heroin.
 
Turk imposed the 20-year mandatory minimum sentence carried by Nichols' charge, and ordered that she be under the supervision of the federal probation office for three years after her release.
 
Jones' drug experience also began early, with marijuana and cocaine use at age 15, said her attorney, Chris Kowalczuk. In her 20s, Jones became "a real player" in the region's heroin trafficking, Wolthuis said. She traveled to New Jersey with Alvin Lewis "Chief" Macauley to buy large quantities of heroin, Wolthuis said, and also made trips on her own to bring heroin back to Roanoke.
 
In May, Jones pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute heroin, a charge that carries a five-year minimum sentence. However, U.S. District Judge Glen Conrad said he would grant a prosecution motion for substantial assistance and impose a sentence below the minimum. A motion for substantial assistance is sometimes offered when a defendant cooperates with authorities and allows a judge to waive otherwise-mandatory minimum sentences.
 
Besides the 38 months in prison, Conrad fined Jones $500 and ordered that she be supervised by the probation office for four years after her release.
 
"I have hope that I can change," Jones said, adding that she wanted to make a difference both in her life and in the lives of her children.