NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Former New Orleans Saints player Darren Sharper pleaded guilty Monday to rape in a Louisiana drug-and-sexual-assault case, completing a series of pleas in four states that will see him serve at least nine years in prison.
Sharper entered his plea in a Louisiana state court in New Orleans. He had already pleaded guilty in the federal courthouse in that city late last month.
Sharper was first arrested on rape charges in Los Angeles in January of 2014 and has been jailed since February of that year. Allegations of drug-related rapes in other states followed, resulting eventually in charges being filed in Arizona and Nevada, as well as in state and federal courts in New Orleans.