Following the death of his girlfriend’s 5-year-old daughter in 2019, former NFL running back Cierre Wood was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.
According to the AP, which cited court documents, Wood entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder and criminal child abuse approximately four months prior to the sentencing.
The 33-year-old was sentenced to between 28 months and six years in prison for child abuse; he will be eligible for parole after serving 10 years for the murder accusation. Wood has to deliver the sentences one after the other.
Wood, a 2013 Notre Dame graduate, made his NFL debut with the Texans as an undrafted free agent. In October of that year, Houston released Wood due to unspecified rules infractions; a few weeks later, he signed with New England’s practice squad. After spending little less than two months with the Patriots, Wood had comparatively short tenures with the Buffalo Bills, Seattle Seahawks, and Baltimore Ravens.
Wood played professional football with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Montreal Alouettes, and Winnipeg Blue Bombers during the last two years of his career in Canada.
