MIAMI — Twenty-three-year-old Eric Rivera Jr., convicted of fatally shooting Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor in 2007, has been sentenced to 57 and a half years in prison.
Rivera was convicted in November of second-degree murder and armed burglary, and faced a maximum life sentence.
He told police in a videotaped confession that he and other young men from the Fort Myers area broke into Taylor’s Miami-area house hoping to steal cash the NFL player kept there. Taylor surprised them because he was home instead of with the Redskins and was shot after confronting them with a machete.
Rivera testified someone else fired the fatal shot. Three others are awaiting trial in the case.
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