Five Slippery Rock University students, including a freshman football player, said they didn't intend to hurt anybody when they used a broken handgun to hold six other students hostage while they looked for pot at an apartment complex last year.

All but one hadn't had any previous scuffles with the law and were looking forward to college degrees and bright futures.

Now, they're all facing criminal records and state supervision, either in a state lockup, a boot camp or state-run probation or parole.

"They decided to enter the world of crime in a grand way,'' said Butler County Assistant District Attorney Ben Simon.

The first of the five defendants was sentenced Tuesday in Butler County Common Pleas Court. Two others pleaded guilty to reduced charges. And the final two are scheduled for a pretrial conference early next month.

Police said the group of students went to the Ivy Apartments in Slippery Rock Township, near the university, about 2:30 a.m. Dec. 4 looking for marijuana.

They left the apartment with a small amount of the drug plus some DVDs, a video game and wireless controllers.

Mr. Simon has constructed a deal that will allow three of the former college students to serve parole plus boot camp; the freshman football player will be "looking at some serious time"; and the final defendant, who was least involved, will do no worse than his three buddies who are facing boot camp, though he may fare a bit better.

Joshua Burnette, 25, of Harrisburg, was sentenced Tuesday by Judge William Shaffer to 14 to 30 months, but the judge noted that he will be recommended for a boot camp. The standard sentencing range would have called for six to 14 months in the county jail. He pleaded guilty April 2 to a single count of robbery, which is a second-degree felony, and a single count of false imprisonment, a second-degree misdemeanor.

He initially was charged with five counts of first-degree felony robbery, five counts of conspiracy to commit robbery, five counts of false imprisonment, one count of theft, one count of receiving stolen property, one count of conspiracy to commit theft and one count of conspiracy to receive stolen property.

Two other defendants pleaded guilty Monday to the same charges for which Mr. Burnette was sentenced Tuesday. They are Blane Jefferson, 19, of North Braddock, and Jacquay Hosey, 22, of Pittsburgh.

They are to be sentenced by Judge Shaffer on June 26. Mr. Jefferson's recommended sentence is 14 to 30 months. Mr. Hosey's recommended sentence will be 14 to 36 months. Again, recommended plea agreements call for the men to be eligible for boot camp. Mr. Simon said Mr. Hosey "has a longer tail on his sentence" because the prosecutor deemed him "slightly more culpable ... That'll keep him under parole longer."

The final two defendants are scheduled for pretrial conferences June 4 with their trials set for June 16 before Judge Shaffer, unless plea agreements are reached. They are Daresse Henderson and Harold Tardy, who was a freshman wide receiver on the Slippery Rock University football team.

Mr. Henderson, 19, of New Castle, is charged with the set of allegations initially filed against the other three defendants.

Mr. Tardy, 19, of Pittsburgh, who is accused of carrying the firearm used in the incident, is charged with five first-degree felony counts of robbery, five counts of false imprisonment, one count of theft, one count of receiving stolen property, and one count of carrying a firearm without a license.

Mr. Simon said he had researched each of the individuals before deciding how to proceed with their cases.

"Every one of them has been cooperative. None of them had any substantive kind of criminal record that added up to a 'prior record' score," he said.

He said he is working with Mr. Henderson and Mr. Tardy on plea agreements and that Mr. Tardy is facing the most restrictive sentencing. "He won't be getting any recommendation for boot camp from this office,'' Mr. Simon said. That's because Mr. Tardy carried the weapon, although Mr. Simon acknowledged the gun was nonfunctional.

"Too bad the victims didn't know that,'' he said.

As for Mr. Henderson, the prosecutor said he was the "least involved" of the five and "he'll be given the most consideration."

Mr. Simon said the agreements are likely to be presented during their pretrials.

Though he has agreed to recommend three of the five for boot camp, it will be up to the state correctional system to determine ultimate placement. "If they don't get it, they serve out their time in a state prison,'' he said.

Mr. Simon also noted that while Mr. Hosey had not accumulated a prior-record score, he has been in trouble with the law before. He had been charged with three assaults in Allegheny County, though two were withdrawn. He is serving under a special probationary program known as ARD, or accelerated rehabilitative disposition. That could be revoked because of his trouble in Butler County, Mr Simon said.