Former Pro Bowler Brandon Browner pleads no contest to attempted murder

Former Pro Bowl defensive back Brandon Browner pleaded no contest to attempted murder and two misdemeanor counts of cruelty to a child during a hearing Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Pomona.

Judge Bruce F. Marrs sentenced the Sylmar native and onetime member of the Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots and New Orleans Saints to eight years in state prison.

Prosecutors charged Browner in July with breaking into a former girlfriend’s home in La Verne, chasing and dragging her, then smothering her in a carpet. The woman’s two young children were present during the incident.

Browner, 34, has been jailed in lieu of $10-million bail since his arrest.

The former girlfriend applied for a temporary restraining order against Browner in September 2017, according to court records, but the court didn’t find a basis to issue a permanent order.

“Physically, he has given me several black eyes,” the former girlfriend wrote in the application. “He has assaulted me and given me a broken tailbone, busted my eardrum. … I don’t feel safe leaving my children with him.”

She added in the application that Browner previously threatened to kill her, saying, “Imma bust on you. Imma dangerous man.”

The attempted murder arrest capped a series of run-ins between Browner and law enforcement that included at least five additional criminal cases since October 2017.

Three of the cases — for violating a protective order, possession of a controlled substance and disobeying a court order — were dismissed in May. The same day, Browner pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of battery and contempt of court stemming from a February incident. He was sentenced to three years of probation, anger-management classes and a 52-week domestic violence treatment program.

In June, Browner pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of battery and cruelty to a child by inflicting injury during an incident involving the former girlfriend and one of her children. It occurred the day after his previous no-contest plea. Browner’s sentence included one day in jail and 48 hours of community service.

As part of Tuesday’s sentence, the judge ordered Browner to stay away from the former girlfriend and her two children for 10 years.

Browner attended Oregon State and was a member of the famed “Legion of Boom” defensive backfield for the Seahawks during five seasons in the NFL.

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