Ex-NFL receiver Brown avoids prison after pleading guilty to reduced charge — SkimNews
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- Antonio Brown pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a firearm in connection with a 2025 shooting outside a celebrity boxing match in Miami, after initially facing an attempted-murder charge that carried up to 30 years in prison if convicted and a 20-year mandatory minimum.
- Marisa Tinkler Mendez sentenced the 38-year-old to three years of probation, requiring weekly counselling sessions, no firearm possession and other conditions.
- Mark Eiglarsh called the probation offer “one he just couldn’t refuse,” while Brown said outside court that he wanted to “get back to life” and spoke of his family.
- Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu was grazed in the neck after police said Brown grabbed a handgun from a security member and fired two shots at the man he had earlier fistfought.
- Florida’s Stand Your Ground law allows deadly force without a duty to retreat when someone believes they face death or serious injury; Brown said he was defending himself from an attack as others tried to steal his jewellery.
- Howard Rosen said prosecutors sought the reduced charge because there was a “question” of whether Brown was actually trying to shoot Nantambu, who was walking away from the altercation; Nantambu also said publicly that he did not want to press charges.
- Richard Cooper said the court ratified a “carefully crafted agreement” and that the victim’s side maintained its wish for Brown’s healing; Rosen said the state-defense arrangement was meant to preserve an opportunity for Brown’s therapeutic treatment.
Why it matters: Three years of probation, weekly counselling and a firearm ban followed Brown’s guilty plea to a reduced charge, with the original attempted-murder count carrying up to 30 years and a 20-year mandatory minimum if convicted. Nantambu, grazed in the neck, said he did not want to press charges, and the court approved the plea-based resolution.
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