LAS VEGAS (AP) — A former professional football player was sentenced Tuesday to prison in the April 2019 death of his girlfriend's 5-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 in Canada.
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.
FILE - Former NFL player, Cierre Wood appears in court on Tuesday, April 16, 2019 in Las Vegas. (Michael Quine/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)/
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — A marble statue of a woman believed to be more than 2,000 years old was found abandoned in a garbage bag near the Greek city of Thessaloniki, police said Wednesday.
A resident discovered the 80-centimeter (31-inch) headless statue beside a trash bin in Neoi Epivates, outside Greece’s second-largest city. The man turned it over to local authorities, who contacted archaeologists to assess its significance.
Police said experts, following an initial evaluation, determined the piece dates to the Hellenistic era, a period roughly between 320 and 30 B.C. that was marked by a flourishing of art and culture following the conquests of Alexander the Great.
The statue was sent for further examination by archaeologists. It will ultimately be handed over to the local antiquities authority for preservation and study.
Police opened an investigation to determine who discarded the statue and briefly detained a man for questioning who was later released without charge.
Accidental archaeological discoveries are relatively common in Greece, a country renowned for its ancient heritage, and often made during building construction or public works. In December, workers installing natural gas pipelines near Athens uncovered a Roman-era statue of Hermes buried upright in a brick-lined pit near the Acropolis.
Thessaloniki weeks ago unveiled a trove of antiquities found during the decades-long construction of its metro system, which officially opened in November. Key finds, including a marble-paved Roman thoroughfare and tens of thousands of artifacts spanning the Greek, Byzantine, and Ottoman periods, are now showcased at subway stations.
This undated handout photo provided by the Greek Police and released on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025 shows a marble statue of a woman believed to be more than 2,000 years old which was found abandoned in a garbage bag in the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece. (Greek Police via AP)