VALPARAISO | Not long ago, Duke Tanner served as a mentor to school kids on avoiding criminal life while attracting national attention to his boxing prowess.

The Andrean High School graduate said he was planning to marry his longtime sweetheart, be a father to his 2-year-old son and ride his 19-0 undefeated fighting streak toward a championship bout on ESPN.

That was four years ago, before a Hammond federal court jury watched the undercover video of Tanner taking 15 kilograms of fake cocaine as part of a controlled drug buy orchestrated by federal agents. It was before he was labeled a drug kingpin in one of the state's most troubled communities, before he was convicted and before he faced the possibility of life in prison.

Since 2004, the 28-year-old Gary native's major accomplishments include becoming head chef at the Porter County Jail, where he awaits sentencing on the federal drug conviction.

In a series of jail house interviews during the past two weeks, Tanner described a two-pronged message that he hoped would resonate with young people who once looked up to him.

His first goal is to paint a realistic portrait of jail and prison, where you have to go to the bathroom without privacy and watch your loved ones grow up and fall ill without being able to touch them.

"You all don't want to go to prison," he said. "I'm here. I don't want you to go through it."

His second goal is seeking to dispel the government's description of him as a drug-peddling overlord of the Renegades street gang.

"I get upset about things that I'm going through because I know for a fact that I'm not the leader of the Renegade drug conspiracy," he said.

Tanner's spiritual mentor, Pastor Larry Shelby Sr., of Christ is King nondenominational church in Gary, said it might be hard for some people to accept Tanner's double message of counseling young people to avoid prison while denying the government's portrait of him as a gang leader.

"The public is very unforgiving ... of people that have made a mistake," said Shelby, who sat through Tanner's 2006 trial.

Tanner's godmother, Dena Neal, said she doesn't know what to believe.

Neal knows Tanner as the young adult who seemed headed for a family life and national athletic recognition. But she also sees the dangers in making role models out of athletes who are just as vulnerable to making mistakes as anyone.

She was stunned by Tanner's sudden arrest and the government's allegations -- which were taken as fact by Tanner's jury -- that her godson was heading a drug gang.

"I was caught blind in this, and I've never been able to have the conversation with him about what happened," Neal said.

Facing a possible sentence of life in prison, Tanner speaks about a time "when this is all over" and says that his present struggles are part of a destiny he never could have foreseen, of being a prison cook and watching his son grow up through a closed-circuit TV system for jail visitors.

Tanner said his highest hope was that U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano would declare him free from jail during a sentencing hearing that had been scheduled for this Thursday. He aims to start a career as a motivational speaker someday.

"I really feel like this is the press conference before a fight," Tanner said. "I'm fighting for a world title on the 31st."

The next day, Tanner's sentencing hearing was vacated. No new date has been set.