SAN DIEGO (AP) – 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 San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame recipient Kellen Winslow appeared during the trial in San Diego Superior Court in Vista, a city north of San Diego, by video conference. He declined to comment before his sentencing and said his lawyers had advised him not to speak.
“In the future, I plan to tell my story,” said the former Cleveland Browns star, who was once the highest paid team in the NFL.
Judge Blaine Bowman, Supreme Court of San Diego County, said Winslow can only be described in ‘two words and it is a sexual predator’.
The judge said he befriended women who were particularly vulnerable with a homeless woman, picked up a 54-year-old lifter and attacked a teenager after she passed out at a party.
Bowman calls them ‘brazen’ crimes. He noted that even after his first arrest, Winslow continued to prey on women. He performed a shameful act in front of a 77-year-old woman in a gym while hiding his GPS bracelet with a towel. He also exposed himself to a 57-year-old neighbor gardening during that time.
“The vulnerability of the victims was no accident,” Bowman said. “It was the kind of victim you were looking for yourself because you thought they might not report the crime” or “would not be considered credible by the jurors.”
The 14-year sentence was the maximum allowed under a plea agreement. He was convicted of violent rape, rape of an unconscious person, assault with intent to commit rape, indecent exposure and lewd conduct in public.
Four of the women made statements on Wednesday, including one victim who had the prosecutor read to her. All described suffering for years after their attacks of fear and emotional trauma.
The woman, who was homeless and raped in Winslow’s hometown of Encinitas, a beach community north of San Diego, heard the trial via a video conference from the San Diego district attorney’s office, where she watched the proceedings with another victim, called in.
She said since she was raped, she has had trouble lifting her head and walking, and she constantly feels scared, looks under beds and in closets and cannot be alone.
“It affects my life every day and every night,” she said. ‘I never feel safe inside or outside. You’ve done so much damage in my life. ”
Winslow was once an NFL draft in the first round, and played for the Cleveland Browns, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New England Patriots and New York Jets. He earned more than $ 40 million over his ten seasons before leaving in 2013.
Winslow’s lawyer, Marc Carlos, said he was suffering from head trauma from the many blows to his head playing football, which can only explain why he went off the rails, from a star athlete to a convicted sexual predator. He said his client has accepted responsibility and intends to get help.
Winslow was first convicted after a June 2019 trial when judges convicted him of violent rape and two offenses – indecent exposure and a heinous act in public.
The same jurors disagreed on other charges, including the alleged rape of the 54-year-old lifter in 2018, and the 2003 rape of the unconscious 17-year-old high school boy who went to a party with him when he was 19 years old. .
Before being tried again on these charges, he pleaded guilty to raping the teenager’s teen and sexual battery. These pleas spared him the possibility of life in prison.
The father of two, whose wife filed for divorce after being convicted, faces up to 18 years in prison on all charges.
Both parties agreed to reduce the charging of sexual batteries to assault with intent to commit rape. This reduced the maximum sentence to 14 years.
Winslow must also register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.