FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Former Miami Dolphins running back
Cecil Collins was sentenced to 15 years in prison Tuesday, less
than two hours after a jury convicted him of felony burglary.
The sentence was the maximum under Florida law. Circuit Judge
Joyce Julin told Collins that he got the maximum because of his
earlier conviction in Louisiana for a similar offense.
Collins closed his eyes as the sentence was read, then stared at
his lap until courtroom deputies came over, handcuffed him and took
him to a side table for fingerprinting.
Collins was arrested in Dec. 1999 on charges he broke into an
apartment where Tina Nolte and her husband, Ron Nolte, were
sleeping. They awoke to see him and recognized him as their
neighbor.
When arrested later, Collins told police he only wanted to watch
Tina Nolte as she slept.
Defense attorney Sebastian "Benny" Cotrone tried to convince
the jury in closing arguments Tuesday that Collins and Nolte were
lovers and that Nolte lied about it to save her marriage.
The couple spoke to the judge before sentencing.
"In the community where I live, and where I work and where my
family lives, I had to see myself smeared on the radio and in the
media and by the lawyers..., portrayed as a woman who would cheat
on her husband," said Tina Nolte.
Ron Nolte told the judge that on the night of crime, he rose to
defend his wife from an intruder. But, he said, pointing to Collins
and his two defense attorneys, "I don't know how to defend her
from people like you, and you, and you."
Earlier, after the six-member jury delivered its verdict, Tina
Nolte said she felt "vindicated. You can't believe the pain and
suffering this has caused my family."
In his closing, prosecutor Gregg Rossman pointed to Collins and
told jurors that Collins had bad intentions when he sneaked through
the Nolte's window.
"He wasn't there to steal a VCR or money, he was there to steal
Tina Nolte's dignity and humanity," Rossman said.
The prosecutor played a taped police statement in which Collins
admitted he entered the apartment through a side window, then fled
when Ron Nolte confronted him in the couple's bedroom.
"I just wanted to go look at her," Collins said on the tape.
Collins, 24, has served the past 15 months in jail, because the
arrest violated his Louisiana probation on a similar conviction.
The Dolphins released him two months after the arrest.
The jury could have found Collins guilty of a lesser charge of
misdemeanor trespassing or could have cleared him of the Florida
charge.
He now faces return to Louisiana for his probation violation.
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