PROVIDENCE — The Asian family came to Rhode Island from California to keep their son away from the marauding gangs that had destroyed the lives of so many young men around them.

The plan quickly fell apart. Soon after the Nhim family moved to Cranston, their son, Nheat Nhim, joined the Cranston Asian Boyz and trouble followed.

At age 14, Nhim, then a student at Bain Junior High School, was arrested and charged with breaking into a house in Cranston, binding the family with duct tape and setting the house on fire. The victims broke free and escaped with minor injuries.

In 2001, Nhim was tried as an adult and sentenced to 20 years in prison with 9 years to serve. He remained locked up in the Adult Correctional Institutions until he was released last March on probation. Four of his seven years in the ACI were spent in high security, where he was placed in a cell 23 hours a day for his own protection. Prison officials were concerned that older inmates might prey on the small teenager.

Yesterday, Nhim, 21, learned that he would spend the next eight years in federal prison for participating in a plot to break into the home of a fictitious drug dealer and rob him at gunpoint.

Nhim and three members of the Providence-based Laos Pride street gang were nabbed in a federal sting last spring. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested them at gunpoint on April 26, less than two months after Nhim got out of prison.

All of them have pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and gun charges. The others, Souvanh Keosouvanh, 27; Vixay Phommarath, 20; and Khek “Evil K” Choummalaithong, 28, will be sentenced to lengthy prison terms in the coming weeks.

An affidavit filed with the court notes that the criminal investigation was launched last March when an ATF agent got a tip that Keosouvanh, the alleged leader, was dealing crack cocaine and Ecstasy in Providence. The ATF assigned an Asian undercover agent to work the case.

Over the next few weeks, the agent allegedly bought Ecstasy from Keosouvanh, and the two developed a working relationship. Several of their meetings were recorded with hidden video and audio equipment.

On March 28, the agent introduced the idea of robbing a drug supplier in Providence. Keosouvanh recruited Nhim and the other two gang members.

That led to their arrests in April. They were armed with several guns, including a loaded shotgun.

At yesterday’s sentencing, the judge, prosecutor and defense lawyer all agreed that Nhim should spend most of the next decade behind bars. But they were deeply troubled that a young man, who will be about 30 years old when he sees freedom, will have spent more than half his life in penal institutions.

“In some ways, this case is a bully pulpit for a larger issue,” said Peter Nerohna, an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case. “The government is frankly at a loss as to how someone, after seven years [in prison], doesn’t get the message. This is a very disturbing case. I don’t know what the future holds for this defendant.”

U.S. District Judge William E. Smith, who imposed the 97-month sentence, also was disturbed with the path Nhim’s life had taken. He was incredulous that the state would place a 14-year-old boy in an adult prison, but at the same time, he wasn’t surprised that, upon his release, he immediately returned to his violent criminal ways.

“When you go to the ACI at the age of 14, what do you expect?” Smith said.

James McCormick, Nhim’s lawyer, said that his client was so small when he entered the ACI that he looked like he was “wearing his father’s clothes” the first time he saw him in a prison-issued jumpsuit. He said Nhim received no education or vocational training in prison.

“There is an element of tragedy here,” McCormick said. “To say he fell through the cracks is a fair assessment.”

Smith suggested Nhim get involved in counseling gang members when he’s released from prison. He also urged him to take advantage of education opportunities and learn a trade during his time in federal prison. He told him that he will still be a young man when he’s released and that it will be difficult, but still possible, for him to turn his life around.

Before the sentence was imposed, Nhim, who wore a khaki prison-issued outfit, stood and addressed the court.

“I’d like to apologize for what I put the court and my family through,” he said.

Except for a couple of ATF agents, Nhim was alone. No members of his family attended the hearing.

bmalinow@projo.com