Former mayor of Detroit Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in prison on Thursday, seven months after he was convicted on 24 counts of bribery, extortion, racketeering, fraud and tax evasion.

"Kwame Kilpatrick was entrusted by the citizens of Detroit to guide their city through one of its most challenging periods," the memo from the prosecution read. "The city desperately needed resolute leadership. Instead, it got a mayor looking to cash in on his office through graft, extortion and self-dealing."

43-year-old Kilpatrick, who served as Detroit's mayor from 2001 to 2008, addressed the court on Thursday, his throat tightened with emotion as he fought to speak.

"I respectfully ask for a fair sentence, based on what happened here," the Detroit Free Press reported Kilpatrick, who has already been jailed three times, as saying. "I respect the jury's verdict...I think your honor knows that I disagree with it."

Judge Nancy Edmunds, who presided over Kilpatrick's trial, said that it was necessary to examine the defendant's history as a whole, pointing to the money that was supposed to go toward city necessities and instead, was given to friends and family.

"One thing is certain," Edmunds said in court. "It was the citizens of Detroit who suffered."

Kilpatrick was forced from office in 2008, after text messages proving he'd lied under oath during a whistle-blower lawsuit were published in the Detroit Free Press. During that time period, federal agents were already investigating city contracting methods that the prosecution referred to as "the Kilpatrick Enterprise." According to an article in the Lansing State Journal, around $9.6 in illegal earnings went to some members of local government.

Kilpatrick used questionable water and sewer contracts to pay off some city officials - 34 other people have been charged with crimes relating to Kilpatrick. $500,000 that was supposed to go to children and senior services was instead given to friend Bobby Ferguson and wife Carlita. $42,000 of taxpayers' money was used to fund two Lincoln Navigators for the Kilpatrick clan. Kwame Kilpatrick additionally used his work credit card to pay for trips to Las Vegas, spa treatments, and famously, an $850 steak dinner.