Antonella Barba shot to fame at the age of 19 when she competed on the sixth season of American Idol and now the show is being blamed on the legal trouble she’s currently facing.
The 32-year-old former Idol contestant, who made it to the Top 16 in 2007, plead guilty to possessing and distributing fentanyl over the summer.
Antonella faces 10 years in prison and she’ll be sentenced on November 21. In court documents filed by her lawyer, she’s asking for a short prison sentence with supervised release, according to The Blast.
“The extent of Ms. Barba’s involvement in this case is limited to delivering one shipment of drugs and that single instance forms the sum total of her relevant conduct,” her lawyer wrote in the documents. “Ms. Barba had very little if any insight into the scope and structure of this conspiracy. In fact, prior to receiving the package, she did not know the type of substance or the quantity she was to deliver. Ms. Barba also did not participate in any of the planning or organization nor did she exercise any decision making authority. As indicated above, Ms. Barba’s conduct in this offense was limited to this single delivery. That was her sole responsibility; she picked up a package and transported it from one location to another.”
“Ms. Barba was told where to go, when to go, and what to do when she got there. She did not break down the contents of the package into smaller amounts for resale and she did not collect any proceeds. She had no pecuniary interest in the package and did not stand to benefit in any way by the sale of the narcotics. Ms. Barba was paid only to deliver the package,” the documents said.
“One of the common themes is that the American Idol experience brought about a detrimental change in Ms. Barba’s life,” the documents added. Letters from Antonella‘s supporters note that her move to Hollywood “was a recipe for disaster.” They say that when she wasn’t able to “achieve the results she wanted, it was devastating to her.”
Antonella‘s mom says that when Idol happened, “the world intruded and interrupted her… dream of a career in architecture” and that this is “where it all went wrong.”
