Former NFL player Kellen Winslow II has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for multiple rapes and other sexual offenses against five women in southern California.
The 37-year-old son of Chargers hall of fame receiver Kellen Winslow appeared via video conference at the hearing in a California court on Wednesday, March 3.
At the hearing, Winslow II declined to comment before his sentence, saying his lawyers had advised him not to speak.
Judge Blaine Bowman said Winslow can only be described with “two words, and that is sexual predator.” Bowman said Winslow 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 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 Winslow’s hometown 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 while playing football and suggested that was why he “went off the rails,” going from a star athlete to a convicted sexual predator.
Carlos said his client has accepted responsibility and intends to get help.
Jurors also convicted Winslow of two misdemeanors – indecent exposure and a lewd act in public – involving two other women. But the 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 to 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. Both sides agreed to reduce the sexual battery charge to assault with intent to commit rape last month, which then reduced the maximum sentence to 14 years.
Winslow was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 2004 and spent four seasons with the team, being named to 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 tight end in the league, and his last NFL season was in 2013.
