The middleman in a drug distribution chain that included former WSLS (Channel 10) meteorologists Marc Lamarre and Jamey Singleton was sentenced Thursday to two and a half years in prison.

When U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Wilson pronounced sentencing, Chad Rhudolph Honaker, 33, of Montvale turned to his family with a smile, a nod and a wink.

Honaker's sister, Verlana Campbell, said she was pleased the sentence was not longer but still angry that Lamarre and Singleton were not charged.

She was mad, too, that Singleton was still employed with the station.

"He's still on my TV when I turn it on," she said.

Ironically, Singleton was fired just hours later as a result of a nude photo of him being posted on the Internet.

According to prosecutors, Honaker purchased heroin from Gilbert Dennis Hadden, 21, and then sold it to Lamarre at a South Roanoke apartment on Feb. 2.

Lamarre suffered a near-fatal overdose that night, but it has never been proved that he overdosed on heroin instead of a combination of prescription medications.

Hadden and Honaker were both charged with conspiracy to distribute heroin leading to serious bodily injury, but that charge was later reduced to conspiracy. Hadden was sentenced earlier this month to two years in prison.

Wilson told Honaker on Thursday that it is unusual for him to view a middleman as more dangerous than a bigger supplier, but that's how he saw Honaker.

"Had it not been for your cooperation" with the federal government, Wilson said, "I would have given you a sentence above the guideline range."