SAN DIEGO – Former NFL player Kellen Winslow II was sentenced on Wednesday to 14 years in prison for several 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 Chargers Hall of Fame recipient Kellen Winslow appeared via video conference during the trial in San Diego Superior Court in Vista, California.
Winslow II declined to comment before his sentencing, saying his lawyers advised him not to speak.
Judge Blaine Bowman, high court in San Diego, said Winslow can only be described with ‘two words, and it is a sexual predator’. Bowman said Winslow chose women who were vulnerable because of their age or their life situation with the idea that he “would hopefully get away with it in his mind.”
Winslow was convicted of violent rape, rape of an unconscious person, assault with intent to commit rape, indecent exposure and shameful conduct in public. The violent rape involves a woman who was homeless in her hometown of Encinitas, a beach community north of San Diego.
The 14-year sentence was the maximum allowed under a plea agreement.
His lawyer, Marc Carlos, said Winslow had head trauma due to the many blows to his head while playing football, and suggested that this was the reason why he was ‘off the track’ and from a star athlete to a convicted sexual predator goes.
Carlos said his client has accepted responsibility and intends to get help.
Jurors also found Winslow guilty of two offenses – indecent exposure and a shameful act in public – involving two other women.
However, the jury did not agree on other charges, including the alleged rape of a 54-year-old lifter in 2018 and the 2003 rape of an unconscious 17-year-old high school boy who went to a party with him when he was 19 wash.
Before being tried again on these charges, he pleaded guilty to the rape of the teenager and to the sexual battery of the lifter.
The father of two, whose wife filed for divorce after being convicted, faces up to 18 years in prison on all charges. Both sides have agreed to reduce the charging of sexual batteries to assault with intent to commit rape. This reduced the maximum sentence to 14 years.
Winslow was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 2004 and spent four seasons with the team and was named the Pro Bowl in 2007. He also played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New England Patriots and New York Jets. He was once the highest paid team in the league, and his last NFL season was in 2013.