Ex-NFL player gets prison time in death of 5-year-old girl in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A former professional football player was sentenced Tuesday to prison in the April 2019 death of his girlfriend’s five-year-old daughter at his Las Vegas apartment.

The sentencing came after Cierre Wood, a former NFL and Canadian Football League running back, reached a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty in April to second-degree murder and felony child abuse, court records show.

Wood, 33, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 10 years for the murder charge. Clark County District Court Judge Jacqueline Bluth also ordered him to serve between 28 months and six years for the child abuse charge. He must serve the sentences consecutively.

According to a copy of the plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed the remaining felony counts of child abuse that they initially had filed against Wood. He entered what is known as an Alford plea, a formal admission of guilt in criminal court that allows a defendant to still claim innocence.

The Associated Press sent an email to his lawyer seeking comment Tuesday.

Wood played for the University of Notre Dame before brief NFL stints with three teams and the Montreal Alouettes of the CFL.

Court records show that the child’s mother, Amy Taylor, 31, also pleaded guilty earlier this year to second-degree murder and felony child abuse as part of a deal with prosecutors.

The coroner’s office in Las Vegas said the child, La’Rayah Davis, died on April 9, 2019, of blunt force injuries.