Former NFL star Antonio Brown appeared Wednesday in a Miami court docket, the place a choose set his bond at $25,000 and positioned him on home arrest with a GPS ankle monitor whereas dealing with an tried homicide cost in Florida.
Brown, 37, pleaded not responsible on Tuesday to a second-degree tried homicide cost stemming from a Could taking pictures incident at an novice boxing match. The cost carries a possible 15-year jail sentence and a advantageous as much as $10,000 if he’s convicted. Each Brown’s legal professional and the prosecutor raised doubts throughout Wednesday’s listening to about how the alleged sufferer was injured.
Brown, who appeared on the listening to through Zoom sporting a crimson jail shirt, was ordered to haven’t any contact with the alleged sufferer, Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, from whom he should keep 500 toes away. Brown was additionally informed that he might not return to the venue the place the boxing match befell in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood.
When the choose requested if he understood the order, Brown replied, “Sure, ma’am.” Prosecutors sought pretrial detention, claiming he was a flight threat, however the choose denied the request.
Brown’s legal professional, Mark Eiglarsh, identified that his shopper was launched by authorities on the evening of the incident and traveled to Dubai on enterprise earlier than a warrant for his arrest was issued, sustaining that his shopper “did not flee to Dubai.”
Nonetheless, a prosecutor mentioned Brown was conscious of the pending cost when he left for Dubai, the place the previous participant was arrested final week by U.S. marshals and extradited to New Jersey earlier than being moved to Miami on Tuesday.
In accordance with the arrest warrant, Brown is accused of grabbing a handgun from a safety staffer and firing two photographs at a person he had gotten right into a fistfight with earlier. The alleged sufferer informed investigators that one of many bullets grazed his neck.
Eiglarsh disputed that Nantambu was even hit by gunfire, insisting that the neck harm was from a scratch throughout a melee that occurred earlier.
In a recorded video interview after the taking pictures, Eiglarsh contended, Nantambu “says that the scratch on his neck, which he is speaking about, really got here from the melee that occurred whereas he was attacking my shopper earlier than the photographs rang out.”
Brown and Nantambu had a historical past of confrontation, and Eiglarsh argued that Brown feared for his security and acted in self-defense. In accordance with Eiglarsh, Brown retrieved his personal gun, for which he has a hid weapons allow, and fired twice however not at Nantambu.
When requested by the choose if Nantambu was hit by these photographs, a prosecutor mentioned “he thought that he was” and “I do not consider so.”
An legal professional for Nantambu, Richard L. Cooper, appeared on Zoom and mentioned it was Brown’s intention to kill Nantambu. “By the grace of God he was not killed,” Cooper mentioned. He mentioned that Brown left for a rustic, Dubai, from which he believed he could not be extradited and was flaunting his presence there on social media.
Brown, who spent 12 years within the NFL, was an All-Professional huge receiver who final performed in 2021 for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers however spent most of his profession with the Pittsburgh Steelers. For his profession, Brown had 928 receptions for greater than 12,000 yards and 83 touchdowns.
He has handled varied authorized issues through the years. Brown beforehand had been accused of battery of a shifting truck driver, a number of home violence costs, failure to pay baby assist and different incidents. Throughout a 2021 sport with the Buccaneers towards the New York Jets, Brown took off his jersey, shoulder pads and gloves and ran off the sphere, resulting in his launch by Tampa Bay and successfully ending his soccer profession.
The Related Press contributed to this report.