When you think about Javaris Crittenton’s NBA career — more accurately, if you think about it — you likely remember him as the other key figure in the Gilbert Arenas guns in the locker room incident.
But he’s been in a lot worse trouble since falling out of the NBA. Crittenton had been charged as the trigger man in the 2011 drive-by shooting of Julian Jones outside her Atlanta home, killing the mother of four. Crittenton fired at her mistakingly thinking she was part of a previous robbery, according to the police report.
Wednesday, Crittenton pled guilty to the shooting as part of a plea bargain that will have him serving 23 years in prison, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.Crittenton apologized for the shooting death of Julian Jones, calling it a horrible accident.
Crittenton and his cousin and co-defendant Douglas Gamble, 29, were charged with murder, felony murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and participation in criminal street gang activity. Both pleaded guilty to lesser charges of voluntary manslaughter and aggravated assault.
Crittenton was a high school hoops star in Atlanta who played in college for Georgia Tech, then was a first-round draft pick of the Lakers in 2007. Crittenton’s game showed some potential, but his game was mostly based around getting himself shots (and not always good ones). The Lakers traded him to Memphis as part of the Pau Gasol deal, Memphis later shipped him off Washington.
After the Arenas/gun incident, he never played again in the NBA.