SAN DIEGO (AP) — Former NFL player Kellen Winslow II was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in prison for multiple rapes and other sexual offenses against five women in Southern California, including one who was homeless when he attacked her in 2018.
The 37-year-old son of San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame receiver Kellen Winslow appeared via videoconference at the hearing in San Diego Superior Court in Vista, a city north of San Diego. He declined to comment before his sentence, saying his lawyers had advised him not to speak.
FILE – In this June 14, 2019 file photo Ex-NFL player Kellen Winslow II, standing, who was accused of committing several sex crimes against women in North County last year, including rape, answers a question from San Diego County Superior Court Vista Judge Blaine Bowman during a status hearing in Vista, Calif. (Howard Lipin/The San Diego Union-Tribune via AP, Pool,File)
Court TV’s Trial Archives: NFL Star Rape Trial (CA v. KELLEN WINSLOW II)
San Diego County Superior Court Judge Blaine Bowman said Winslow can only be described with “two words and that is sexual predator.” He said he selected women who were vulnerable because of their age or their living situation with the idea that “hopefully he would get away with it in his mind.”
Winslow was once the highest-paid tight end in the league, earning more than $40 million over his 10 seasons before he left in 2013.
He was convicted of forcible rape, rape of an unconscious person, assault with intent to commit rape, indecent exposure, and lewd conduct in public. The forcible rape involved a woman who was homeless in his home town of Encinitas, a beach community north of San Diego.
The 14-year-sentence was the maximum allowed under a plea deal.
His attorney Marc Carlos said Winslow suffered from head trauma from the many blows to his head playing football, which can only explain why he “went off the rails” going from a star athlete to a convicted sexual predator. He said his client has accepted responsibility and intends to get help.
Jurors also convicted him of two misdemeanors — indecent exposure and a lewd act in public — involving two other women.
But that jury failed to agree on other charges, including the alleged 2018 rape of a 54-year-old hitchhiker, and the 2003 rape of an unconscious 17-year-old high school senior who went to a party with him when he was 19.
Before he was retried on those charges, he pleaded guilty to raping the teen and sexual battery of the hitchhiker.
The father of two, whose wife filed for divorce after he was convicted, had faced up to 18 years in prison for all the charges. But both sides agreed to reduce the sexual battery charge to assault with intent to commit rape last month. That reduced the maximum sentence to 14 years.
