IN BRIEF

WALKING ON THE SIDEWALK

Pedestrian hit, killed by car identified

The 49-year-old Las Vegas woman who was killed when she was struck by a car Sunday on Arville Street near Flamingo Road was Patricia Black, according to the Clark County coroner's office.

Black was walking on the sidewalk about 1:15 p.m. when a 2006 Ford Focus driven by 28-year-old Montrie Ledford hit her, police said.

Ledford, a Las Vegas resident, was booked into jail on a charge of felony driving while under the influence involving a death.

DRUG SMUGGLING CASE

Ex-Playboy TV host sentenced to prison

The former co-host of the defunct Playboy TV show "Buckwild" was sentenced Monday to more than 11 years in federal prison for his role in a conspiracy that used models to smuggle Ecstasy tablets.

Kenneth Cecil Francis III, 38, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to import and distribute Ecstasy.

Prosecutors said he took part in a drug smuggling ring that involved recruiting couriers to travel to Belgium and the Netherlands to pick up packages containing Ecstasy tablets.

The couriers told authorities they were told they were smuggling diamonds. The packages actually contained tens of thousands of pills that were brought into Los Angeles and New York in 2000 and 2001, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Cheryl Murphy.

Before he was sentenced, Francis told U.S. District Judge Manuel Real that he "got involved in this whole drug-smuggling conspiracy by wanting to start my own business, which was a modeling business."

He said he initially thought the models were traveling to Europe for photo shoots, but he later learned they were smuggling drugs.

Ringleader Ronald Joseph Samuel has pleaded guilty in the case and awaits sentencing, prosecutors said.