Titus Young Sentenced To Four Years In Prison For 2016 Assault

Laura Wagner|published: Mon 10th April, 17:01 2017

Photo: Dave Martin/ [object Object]

Former Lions wide receiver Titus Young has been sentenced to four years in California state prison after pleading no contest to battery in connection with an assault early last year, according to court documents.

Young was convicted of battery, inflicting “serious bodily injury,” according to the California penal code. TMZ reported last year that Young was arrested for assaulting someone in a street fight in January 2016.

The prison sentence caps a downward spiral in the 27-year-old’s life. After a bumpy college career, Young was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the second round of the 2011 NFL draft, disciplined for punching a teammate in May 2012, released from the team in February 2013 after other incidents, claimed by the Rams, and then cut days later. In May 2013, he was arrested three times in one week. We summarized those incidents at the time:

On May 4, he was arrested for shoplifting snacks from a gas station convenience store. The very next day he was arrested twice: first on suspicion of DUI, then later that night for trying to steal his car back from an impound lot. Five days later he was arrested for breaking into someone’s home, and trying to fight police when they arrived. (Young spent 27 days in jail. His family declined to bail him out, because he was a danger to himself and others.) While incarcerated, the mother of his child filed for a restraining order against him.

Missed court appearances and another arrest warrant followed and then in July 2o14, he was arrested for assaulting multiple people. TMZ wrote that that the attacks happened at a Los Angeles medical treatment center. In May 2015, he was sentenced to 5 years probation and one year at a residential addiction treatment center in San Diego. Its not clear if he left the treatment center before the most recent assault, which TMZ reported happened Jan. 30, 2016.

Young’s problems have been attributed to concussions—as his father has said— as well as mental illness and substance abuse.