Ex-NFL Star Darren Sharper Gets 18 Years In Prison

Ex-New Orleans Saints safety turned serial rapist Darren Sharper, will spend the next 18 years of his life behind bars for his sick rape spree crimes against several women.

Sharper was first arrested in 2014 and later charged with drugging and raping more than a dozen women in different states including Arizona, Nevada and Louisiana.

Former NFL star Darren Sharper has arrived in federal court in New Orleans for a sentencing hearing. He said “I lived my life right for 38 years and then I took this path”. He looked at the floor as he said, “I’m still trying to figure out why I made some of these choices”.

Like Sharper, Licciardi and Nunez admitted distributing drugs with the intent to commit rape. “I would like to apologize a thousand times to plaintiffs in this case for making them victims”, Sharper said in the federal court in New Orleans, tearful in shackles and orange prisoner garb.

Her voice broke often during her long statement.

“We can never ignore the damage you inflicted on those women and society at large”, Milazzo said of Sharper Thursday, according to the AP. “Not under my watch”. “Go to hell”, she said before turning away from the podium.

Sharper’s federal sentence came as a result of his decision to maintain his guilty pleas to three drug counts, despite Milazzo’s refusal to endorse a “global deal” that called for him to serve a nine-year stretch in federal prison to resolve the charges against him across four states.

The sentence was 15 months short of the maximum.

Sharper previously pleaded guilty and no-contest to raping – or attempting to rape -women between August 31, 2013, and January 15, 2014. 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.

Milazzo has scheduled sentencing for October 13 for Licciardi and a second New Orleans co-defendant, Erik Nunez.

Federal prosecutors had accepted a multistate plea agreement calling for a 9-year sentence.

Before Sharper’s crimes came to light, he was an National Football League star safety who made five Pro Bowls in his 14-season career. Two others await sentencing for their roles in the scheme, including two from the New Orleans area.