Former NFL star Darren Sharper has been sentenced to 18 years in prison in a case where he was accused of drugging and raping as many as 16 women in four states.
Sharper initially struck a plea deal with prosecutors in which he would only serve 9 years but Judge Jane Triche Milazzo shut it down in June, claiming it was too lenient. Milazzo sentenced Sharper on Thursday to 18 years in prison, he was also fined $20,000.
According to the AP, before sentencing Sharper apologized “a thousand times” to the women he abused, adding that he had “lived my life right for 38 years and then I took this path.”
According to a 15-page statement signed as part of the plea, Sharper pleaded guilty in federal court to three counts of distributing drugs with rape as the aim. He or friend Brandon Licciardi, a former sheriff’s deputy in Louisiana, put anti-anxiety drugs or sedatives into women’s drinks in order to rape them.
Like Sharper, Licciardi and Nunez admitted to distributing drugs with the intent to commit rape. Their plea agreements say Licciardi has accepted a 17-year sentence, with 10 years for Nunez. Milazzo has scheduled sentencing Oct. 13 for them.
Charges around the country involve nine victims, but Milazzo has said in court that there could be as many as 16.
source: ESPN
