Henley Sentenced to 41-Year Term

LOS ANGELES —  Darryl Henley, who once starred for the Los Angeles Rams but who lost the fame and fortune of professional football to the lure of easy money in drugs, was sentenced Monday to more than 41 years in prison.

In back-to-back hearings in U. S. District Court, Henley was ordered to prison for conspiring to run a nationwide cocaine trafficking ring and for then plotting to kill the judge who had presided over his case.

Under federal sentencing rules, the harsh reality now facing the 30-year-old Henley is that he won’t leave prison until most men are of an age to retire.

The former UCLA All-American and starting cornerback for the Rams will remain behind bars until he’s 65, after serving 35 years--most likely at one of the toughest prisons in America, the maximum-security U. S. penitentiary in Marion, Ill.

“You screwed up your life, didn’t you?” U. S. District Judge Manuel Real asked Henley before imposing sentence.

Wearing a gray plaid suit, hands clasped in front of him, head bowed, Henley did not respond. Defense attorney William J.Kopeny whispered in Henley’s ear, then nudged him toward the microphone at the lectern.

“Yes,” Henley said in a soft voice.

A few minutes later, in a different courtroom, Judge James M. Ideman went to lengths to urge prison officials to place Henley--whom he called a “hardened criminal”--in the maximum-security facility in downstate Illinois, where most inmates are locked up for 23 hours a day. Prison officials often give such recommendations great weight.

Referring to the botched plot to murder Santa Ana-based U. S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor--a plot hatched while Henley was in a Los Angeles jail awaiting sentencing in the cocaine case--Ideman said, “It’s obvious he’s even more dangerous in custody than out of custody.”

Ideman added, “there is much the court might say in sentencing Henley,” but concluded: “Any speeches to him would be a waste of time.”

Afterward, as a half-dozen marshals escorted Henley away, Assistant U.S. Atty. Marc S. Harris said the 41 1/4-year prison term was “a harsh sentence, obviously.” But, he said, “It fits the crime in this case.”

By any measure, the case was complex. It actually involved two separate cases, several other defendants and allegations that Henley’s supporters initially deemed outlandish--but ultimately were proven true in court.

Henley attended Damien High in LaVerne and then UCLA. In college, he was named a first-team All-American by the Sporting News, Football News and others. The Rams took him in the second round of the 1989 draft.

In 1991, he won the starting job at right cornerback.

In 1992, he finished fourth on the team in tackles.

The next year, he was accused by federal prosecutors of operating an illicit drug network from his home in Brea that extended to Memphis and Atlanta. Prosecutors said Henley used his fame to persuade former Ram cheerleader Tracy Donaho, then 19, to carry suitcases of cocaine across the country during the summer of 1993.

Henley missed the last 11 games of the 1993 season because of the charges, though he received his full $600,000 salary. He returned to the Rams in 1994 for half as much money, and under court restrictions went on to play and earn praise from coaches.

After that, his contract with the Rams expired. Free to negotiate a new deal with any team, NFL insiders said he could have drawn as much as $8 million over five years.

Instead, in March, 1995, Henley and four defendants, among them his uncle, were convicted by a jury of drug conspiracy and possession charges.

Donaho, who was arrested in an Atlanta airport in July 1993 carrying 25 pounds of cocaine, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport cocaine. She ultimately was sentenced to 14 months in a halfway house.

While Henley was in a downtown Los Angeles jail awaiting sentencing, authorities say they learned he had ordered the killing of Taylor, who had presided over his trial, and of Donaho, who had testified for the government against Henley.

In an indictment issued last June, prosecutors also alleged that he arranged million-dollar drug deals from his jail cell, using a cellular phone smuggled to him by a jail guard.

Last Oct. 16, as part of a plea bargain, Henley admitted that he conspired to murder Taylor and Donaho and that he bribed a guard to smuggle a cellular phone into his cell.

In the first of the two hearings on Monday, Real sentenced Darryl Henley to 260 months in prison for the drug case.

Then, a few minutes later in a courtroom just down the hall, Ideman added on 235 more months for the murder-for-hire plot.

In sending Henley away until at least the year 2032, Ideman also made it “very clear” that the sentence would have been harsher were it not part of a plea bargain.

Of a man who once shined as No. 20 for the Los Angeles Rams, he said, “If there’s ever a guy that needs to be locked down 24 hours a day, it’s him.”