Former All-Pro NFL safety Darren Sharper was sentenced to nine years in federal prison on Monday after he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in Arizona, according to an Associated Press report.
Sharper, a former member of the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints, is currently being held in Los Angeles. He changed his plea in Arizona via video-conferencing.
According to the AP report, it normally takes weeks or even months to sentence a defendant after they enter a guilty plea, but Sharper, facing charges in Arizona from a 2013 incident, was sentenced immediately.
"In Arizona, Sharper admitted sexually assaulting one victim, though police say he drugged and sexually assaulted three women, at an apartment in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe in November," the AP reports.
"Authorities say a search of the Tempe apartment turned up a shot glass with a white residue that turned out to be zolpidem, and California investigators discovered that Sharper had a prescription for the drug."
Sharper's attorneys argued last year that their client was not the one who made the drinks used to drug the women.
"One of the women told police she hadn't had any alcohol that night until Sharper insisted she drink a shot. Another young woman said she had been drugged, then went to bed, locked her door and wasn't attacked," according to the AP report.
"The next day, one of the women confronted Sharper, who denied wrongdoing, according to the reports."
Besides Arizona, the 40-year-old Sharper still faces charges that he drugged and assaulted unconscious women in California, Nevada and Louisiana.
He is scheduled to enter a new plea in person in L.A. soon, with similar hearings to follow in Las Vegas this week and in New Orleans in April.
