SAN DIEGO — A well-known San Diego criminal defense attorney who pleaded guilty to laundering $100,000 in drug money for the owner of a marijuana dispensary was sentenced to three years probation with one year of home detention and 2,000 hours of community service Monday.

James J. Warner, 65, turned over more than $300,000, including nearly $200,000 in cash found in his law office - $165,000 of which was vacuum-sealed in a suitcase.

It wasn't the first time the attorney had stood in front of a judge, but never had he been so tearful.

"I never considered the unbelievably dire consequences that this has caused," Warner said, crying.

He then went on to apologize to his colleagues in the justice system, his clients, his friends, and his family. His wife has been on life-support from complications following heart surgery and was recently placed into a coma. Warner blamed himself and his conduct in his case for contributing to her condition.

According to Warner's plea, he agreed to launder $100,000 that federal investigators missed when they searched the home of his client - the dispensary owner - in May 2012. The cash was delivered to Warner in a paper bag, and he deposited $99,900 of his own money into an offshore bank account.

He then told his client, called T.K. in the plea agreement, of an investment opportunity at a Haitian gaming company where the money could collect interest.

Warner began replenishing his own bank accounts in amounts small enough to avoid triggering the bank's requirement to report transactions. He also created a shell corporation to write checks to T.K. for the interest the money was making.

The scheme unraveled when his client, who had reopened his dispensary in San Diego, was raided by federal authorities in May 2013. He spilled about the laundering, hoping for leniency. T.K. also recorded a conversation with Warner on a hidden device about the missing $100,000.

The attorney also began representing another man, who federal investigators suspected was a business associate of T.K. and who they hoped would snitch in T.K.'s case.

Warner didn't declare a conflict of representation in the case. He also urged the dispensary owner to pay this second client's bills and said he would attempt to keep him quiet - a conversation that was also recorded.

Attorney Charles Sevilla, who represented Warner, said a slew of letters were written on his behalf, describing him as law abiding, honest and hard working.

"If one thing is loud and clear from the letters submitted to the court, it's that (Warner) was a passionate attorney, he loved his career as an attorney... he's lost that so that's a huge penalty for him."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri Walker Hobson said the criminal activity Warner pleaded guilty to was in conflict with that character description.

"There is a saying that good people do bad things, and he may be a good person..., but he's done some very bad things," she said.

Warner resigned from the California State Bar and is barred from future practice.