Former Ram Henley Faces 41-Year Sentence

As part of a plea agreement, former Ram cornerback Darryl Henley faces a sentence of 41 years and three months in prison after admitting in federal court Wednesday that he conspired to murder a federal judge and a prosecution witness and that he bribed a prison guard to smuggle a cellular telephone into his cell.

A subdued Henley, 29, was repeatedly asked by U.S. District Judge James M. Ideman if he fully understood the length of time he would be guaranteed of serving in prison if he signed the plea agreement.

“That’s 495 months in prison, do you understand that?” Ideman asked the former football star. “That is something like 42 years.”

Henley calmly replied: “Yes sir.”

Watching from the front row of the courtroom was Henley’s 26-year-old brother, Eric, who followed his brother at the podium and entered a guilty plea to charges that he participated in a conspiracy to distribute 25 kilograms of cocaine. Eric Henley probably will be sentenced to seven to eight years in prison, prosecutors said. Both sentencings are scheduled for January.

The guilty pleas entered by the brothers, in negotiations for several weeks, signify a major breakthrough in a complicated three-year legal case that began as a drug trafficking trial but grew increasingly complex over time.

Darryl Henley was convicted of cocaine trafficking along with four co-defendants in 1995. While he was awaiting sentencing in the downtown Los Angeles jail, authorities learned that Henley had ordered the killing of U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor, who presided over his trial, and of Tracy Donaho, a former Ram cheerleader who testified against him.

Henley used a cellular phone smuggled to him by a jail guard to both orchestrate drug deals and hire a killer, prosecutors said. In both cases, the deals were arranged with undercover federal agents posing as criminals. The prosecution said federal agents had tape-recorded Henley discussing the heroin deal with an undercover agent as a way to finance the pair of $100,000 contract hits.

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In June, Henley pleaded not guilty to the new 13-count indictment alleging the murder plots and drug sales.

Under the terms of Wednesday’s plea agreement, Henley pleaded guilty to three of the charges: two counts of conspiracy to commit murder and a single count of bribing a jail guard. The remaining 10 counts will be dropped, said the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Atty. Marc S. Harris.

Harris refused to say what issues led to the plea agreement, but U.S. Atty. Nora Manella indicated in a statement that the government’s case against the former football player was strong.

“In his own recorded words, Darryl Henley revealed himself to be both a narcotics trafficker and a would-be murderer,” Manella stated.

Ideman said he fully intends to sentence him to the length of time called for in the plea agreement. The judge made a point of noting that Henley would be serving the maximum sentence the court could impose for the attempt on Taylor’s life.

“Sometimes people get the wrong idea when they hear plea agreement, that something is being given away,” Ideman said. “It is the maximum and that should be noted.”

The remaining defendants in the case, former jail guard Rodney Anderson and another defendant, Jimmy Washington, are scheduled to go to trial Nov. 5. Anderson is charged with participating in two conspiracies--to distribute narcotics and to commit murder-for-hire--as well as additional charges. Washington is charged only with narcotics conspiracy.

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Also in federal court Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real scheduled a January 19, 1997, sentencing date for Henley on the original drug trafficking conviction. Henley had asked for a new trial in that case but is expected to withdraw that request as part of the plea agreement.

Henley faced a minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison after his conviction in the first trial. Convicted with him were his uncle and three other co-defendants who were supplying the cocaine or helping to prepare it for shipment via airline luggage.

The five men had sought new trials, contending that a juror solicited a $50,000 bribe to vote not guilty for Henley, and that the verdict was tainted by racism.

In August, Taylor denied the new trial for four of the men. The judge had also been considering Henley’s request for a new trial but disqualified himself from the case after the allegations surfaced that Henley was plotting to kill him and Donaho. He was replaced by Real.

It was Donaho, then 19, who first attracted the attention of federal narcotics investigators when she paid cash for a one-way ticket from Ontario International Airport to Atlanta for a predawn flight. Henley had persuaded Donaho to carry suitcases of cocaine across the country in the summer of 1993.

Donaho was eventually sentenced to 14 months in a halfway house for her part. Her attorney, Stephen DeSales said he hoped Wednesday’s plea agreement is the final chapter in the saga.

“She has just wanted the whole thing to be over,” DeSales said. “She’s really a good person who got swept up in something that was way beyond her.”