Kellen Winslow Jr. Takes Plea Deal To Avoid Life Sentence

Former NFL tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. accepted a plea deal Monday that spared him from the possibility of a life prison sentence, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Winslow pleaded guilty to raping an unconscious teen in 2003 and to sexual battery involving a 54-year-old hitchhiker, while the San Diego County Superior Court agreed to dismiss other felony charges including kidnapping, sodomy, forced oral copulation and two charges of forcible rape.

Per the Union-Tribune, the court agreed to sentence Winslow to between 12 and 18 years in prison for the two charges to which he pleaded guilty.

In June, a jury found Winslow guilty of raping a homeless woman in Encinitas, north of San Diego. Jurors also convicted him of two misdemeanors — indecent exposure and a lewd act in public — involving two other women.

The jury was deadlocked on other charges, including the alleged rape of the hitchhiker and the rape of the unconscious 17-year-old girl in 2003 when he was 19.

Under the plea deal, the attack on the hitchhiker was reduced to sexual battery.

Winslow will be sentenced in February.