NBA star Gilbert Arenas should spend three months behind bars for bringing guns into the Washington Wizards locker room, prosecutors said in documents filed Tuesday.
The sentence recommendation is at least three months fewer than the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said it would seek as part of its plea deal in January. Lawyers for Arenas, who pleaded guilty to one count of carrying a pistol without a license in January, said a more appropriate punishment is probation and community service.
The 28-year-old NBA All-Star is expected to be sentenced Friday. In a 127-page sentencing memorandum, prosecutors said Arenas repeatedly lied to investigators and asked rookie teammate Javaris Crittenton to lie about an incident in which Arenas brought four guns into the locker room on Dec. 21.
The incident stemmed from an argument between Arenas and Crittenton. After telling Wizards management that Crittenton was not even in the locker room when the incident took place, Arenas had a teammate try to pressure Crittenton to tell the same story he had just told, prosecutors said. The unnamed teammate texted Crittenton with instructions about what to tell league officials.
In January, prosecutors said they would seek a sentence “at the low end of the applicable guidelines, which is estimated to be between 6 and 24 months.” The judge’s sentencing options range from probation to the charge’s maximum term of five years. Arenas has been suspended for the rest of the season by the NBA. The gun incident began with a dispute between Arenas and Crittenton over a card game on a team flight.
Two days later, Arenas walked into the team locker room wearing a black backpack on his chest. He pulled out four guns, laid them near Crittenton’s locker and scrawled a note saying, “PICK 1.” Crittenton walked in, saw the weapons and said, “What’s this?” Arenas told his teammate this was Crittenton’s chance to shoot him.
Crittenton then picked one of the guns and tossed it across the room. “I don’t need your gun,” Crittenton responded. “I’ve got one of my own.” Crittenton pulled out what Arenas believed to be a silver-colored handgun, prosecutors said.
