Former NFL player Cierre Wood has been sentenced to life in prison over the murder of his girlfriend’s five-year-old daughter back in 2019.
Wood, a former running back who spent time with the Houston Texans, Baltimore Ravens, Seattle Seahawks and Buffalo Bills, reached a deal with prosecutors.
Earlier this year, the 33-year-old pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and felony child abuse over the death at a Las Vegas apartment back in April 2019.
Wood, who also played in the Canadian Football league, was given a life term with the possibility of parole after 10 years for the murder charge.
La’Ryah Davis was found unresponsive at her mother’s home on April 9, 2019. She later died in hospital in hospital from a combination of brutal injuries.
Before her death, according to a police report at the time, Wood forced La’Ryah to ‘run sprints in the apartment, do sit-ups and wall squats’ because he thought she was overweight.
Police said back in 2019 that Wood told them he was ‘trying to get her on the right path due to her being chunky,’ News 3 reported.
The police report also claimed that Taylor once sat on her daughter’s chest and stomach as a form of punishment.
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.
An autopsy conducted by the Clark County Coroner’s Office determined the five-year-old had suffered a lacerated liver, broken ribs and ‘multiple skull contusions’ at the time of her death.
Judge Jacqueline Bluth also ordered Wood 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.
Wood played for the University of Notre Dame before brief NFL stints with three teams and the Montreal Alouettes in Canada.
