It appears he was offered a plea deal. He opted for a trial. He gambled and lost. Such is the American justice system today, with prosecutors' main objective being to clear their dockets and maximize their conviction rates.
That said, he gambled and lost. His main hope at this point is to tell the feds everything he knows about any illegal activity of anybody he knows.
He decided not to take a guilty plea because he believed he would be exonerated at trial. I don’t disagree with the guilty plea. I do think it is an appalling abuse of the justice system to seek a life sentence for him following conviction. I surmise that whoever advised him to fight had no idea that the prosecutors would seek such an abusive sentence for this man upon conviction.
That’s a good point. It’s also important to note that this case involved convictions on 86 separate counts. I would think there would be a lot of prison time in a case like that — almost by necessity.