Comparing the former owners of Pharmed with the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz concluded Tuesday that guidelines indicate Carlos and Jorge de Céspedes should face seven to nine years in prison.

Those figures were worked out in two days of hearings concerning the crimes of Carlos and Jorge de Céspedes, who are awaiting sentencing along with four other conspirators.

''This case troubles me,'' Seitz said, perplexed by their admission to long-standing criminal activity while engaged in many charitable activities.

She had just listened to 10 witnesses ask that she show mercy in sentencing the defendants. Their attorneys insisted all their charitable work meant they should be sentenced considerably below the suggested guideline.

Seitz is expected to sentence all defendants Wednesday. All have pleaded guilty to a charge of defrauding Kendall Regional Medical Center out of more than $5 million. The brothers also face a tax evasion charge in which they didn't pay millions due the government.

In a courtroom packed with the brothers' supporters, community leaders rallied to the brothers' cause. They included former Barry University President Sister Jeanne O' Laughlin; St. Thomas University President Rev. Msgr. Franklyn M. Casale; Sagemont School co-founder Richard Goldman; and Sister Suzanne Cooke, headmistress of the Carrollton School. They talked about the brothers' frequent charitable activities.

''You are wonderfully charming,'' Seitz said to Carlos de Céspedes at one point. ''Everyone likes you.'' But she noted that at the same time Carlos de Céspedes was signing a letter demanding an end to corruption in Miami, he was engaged in a 14-year fraud against Kendall Regional Medical Center.

Carlos and Jorge de Céspedes both told the judge they were remorseful. Crying, Carlos de Céspedes offered to serve the jail time of Erika Urquiza, an assistant vice president at Pharmed who was recruited into the scheme by Jorge de Céspedes.

Urquiza was a ''very loyal employee,'' Carlos de Céspedes told the judge. ''She has three little girls,'' and she should stay home with them while he did her time.

However, Stephen J. Bronis, attorney for Kendall Regional, told the judge that early in the hospital's investigation, the brothers told hospital officials they knew nothing about the fraud. They placed the blame on Urquiza and Fernando de Céspedes, an older half-brother who had died a few months before.

Bronis said Carlos de Céspedes described the half-brother as ''the black sheep of the family.'' The HCA lawyer noted that the brothers had yet to pay a penny to the hospital in restitution.

Alan S. Ross, attorney for Jorge de Céspedes, said the brothers had been trying to repay the Kendall Regional claim, which has grown to $7 million with legal fees and interest.

He said the brothers have been trying to sell The Astri Group, their venture capital company. They had been talking to a buyer who initially was willing to pay $6 million, but later backed out.

The brothers have also tried to sell their interest in the Carolina Bobcats basketball team, but they have no takers, not even from Bob Johnson, the team's majority owner.

At one point during the hearing, one of the brothers' attorneys threw some car keys at a Kendall Regional attorney, saying that would start paying off the millions the hospital had lost. The keys are to a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT, which the brothers' attorneys say is worth $430,000.

The hospital attorney threw the keys back, noting that the brothers don't have title on the car, which has an $80,000 note on it.

Ross asked the judge to be lenient on the brothers, for they have already suffered tremendously. Their company is now in bankruptcy and they have been humiliated in the community. ''Be assured neither of these individuals will commit a crime again,'' Ross said.

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