Ex-Football Player, 19, Draws 7-Year Term for Robberies : Sentencing: Bay League lineman of the year Sean Powell was a prime college prospect before committing crimes.

A former Leuzinger High School football player was sentenced to seven years in state prison this week for his role in the armed robberies of a Redondo Beach couple and an Inglewood clothing store employee last year.

Torrance Superior Court Judge John P. Shook declined to sentence Sean A. Powell, 19, to the maximum 13 years, which prosecutors agreed was not warranted.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ralph Shapiro said he was satisfied with the lighter sentence since Powell did not lead the group that committed the robberies. In addition, Powell had written a letter of apology to the Redondo Beach victims and had confessed his role in the robberies before pleading guilty last August.

“He admitted to his role right off the bat,” Shapiro said after the sentencing.

In 1991, Powell, then a 6-foot-2, 250-pound senior defensive tackle, was named the Bay League lineman of the year and made The Times’ South Bay All-Star football team. He was considered a prime college prospect.

But on March 1, 1992, Powell and two other teen-agers entered an elderly Redondo Beach couple’s condo after Powell used the ruse that he needed a bandage for his bleeding hand, authorities said. He and the others bound and gagged the couple at gunpoint before ransacking the apartment and making off with $10,000 in cash and jewelry, authorities said.

The couple were “just terror-stricken,” Shapiro said. “They are pleased they do not have to come back and testify.”

On March 3, 1992, Powell and three other men robbed an Inglewood clothing store manager at gunpoint, stealing armloads of clothes and leaving the manager tied up, authorities said.

Detectives arrested Powell and the others a few days after the crimes after tracing the fingerprint of one of the robbers, who was later seen visiting Powell. All three victims identified Powell as one of the assailants, authorities said.

The others involved in the robberies are serving prison terms ranging from four to eight years, Shapiro said.