2 Okla. Football Players Get 10 Years for Rape

Former Oklahoma football players Nigel Clay and Bernard Hall were sentenced to 10 years in prison for rape today.

District Judge Preston Trimble also ordered Clay, from Fontana, Calif., and Hall, from Detroit, to pay $10,000 fines.

Fred Shaeffer, the attorney for Hall, asked that his client receive the minimum punishment of five years in prison. But Trimble decided to follow the recommendation of the jury that last week convicted Clay and Hall of raping an Oklahoma City woman Jan. 21 in the athletic dorm.

In requesting the minimum sentence, Shaeffer said he knew that it was Trimble’s policy not to vary from the jury’s recommendation. But he asked him to consider facts that he said the jury did not know.

Shaeffer said the court knows that some witnesses were more involved than they admitted.

Joel Barr, Clay’s attorney, said he wasn’t surprised by the sentence.

Barr also said a notice of appeal would be filed within 10 days as required by law.

Barr said Clay is not a threat to society. “Nigel Clay is my next-door neighbor,” he said.

Another former Sooner, Glen Bell, was acquitted of the same charge.

Hall and Clay waived their rights to wait 10 days before starting their sentences, and will begin serving their time immediately.

In another development related to the troubled Oklahoma football program, prosecutors have filed misdemeanor charges against four Sooner players who were found to have auto parts and beer in their car when stopped by campus police earlier this month.

The four, including starting tailback Ike Lewis, were suspended from the football team by Coach Gary Gibbs on Nov. 10. Gibbs said then the players’ futures with the football program will be determined after a full review.

All four players were suspended for the remainder of the season.