Former NFL star Antonio Brown has accepted a plea deal that will reduce the charge of attempted second-degree murder he’s facing in Florida to aggravated assault, his attorney told The Times on Wednesday.
The move will result in a significantly lighter sentence for the Super Bowl LV champion, according to attorney Mark Eiglarsh, who said Brown would receive three years of probation with the possibility of early termination after half that time is served.
A conviction for the first-degree felony of attempted second-degree murder with a firearm would have brought a prison sentence of 20 to 30 years.
Eiglarsh added that Brown will be given a withholding of adjudication, meaning he will not be considered a convicted felon. He also said that the main requirement of Brown’s probation is simply “staying away from the alleged victim, which he has no problem doing.”
“No community service hours,” Eiglarsh said. “No anger management. No evaluation psychologically. No drug treatment, no evaluations for anything like that. No letter of apology, no fines, nothing.”
A spokesperson for the Miami-Dade County state attorney’s office would not confirm that a plea deal had been reached, stating in an email that “whatever is to transpire regarding an open & pending case will be fully clarified at the next hearing,” which is scheduled for Sept. 30.
A warrant was issued for Brown’s arrest in June 2025 stemming from an altercation outside a celebrity kickboxing event in Miami the previous month. According to the warrant, “cell phone video obtained from social media” showed Brown advancing toward the other man with a gun in hand and captured “two shots which occur as Mr. Brown is within several feet” of the alleged victim.
Brown wasn’t arrested until November, when he was apprehended by U.S. Marshals in Dubai. He entered a not guilty plea to the first-degree felony charge of attempted second-degree murder with a firearm.
In December, Brown filed a motion for the case to be dismissed under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, which means an individual has no duty to retreat before using deadly force in certain circumstances of self-defense.
Earlier this month, the alleged victim, Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, released a statement through his attorney saying that he “does not wish to participate” in Brown’s prosecution.
In a statement sent to news organizations on Wednesday morning, Eiglarsh said that despite changing his plea, Brown still maintains that he acted lawfully during the incident.
“Antonio believes in his innocence. He believes strongly in his Stand Your Ground defense, and he believes he would ultimately prevail at trial,” Eiglarsh said. “But when prosecutors put an offer on the table that transforms a potential decades-long prison sentence into a significantly reduced charge and probation, there was simply no way he could reasonably turn it down.”
He added: “Antonio has eight children who depend upon him, and every additional day this case remains unresolved creates extraordinary obstacles for him in securing endorsement opportunities and other business opportunities necessary to support his family. He has spent more than 10½ months living under the cloud of a case with no realistic end in sight. At some point, closure has tremendous value.”
After Moses Itauma and Conor Benn both experienced losses when skipping the British title route and heading straight for world title glory, Brown said he wants to go on the “journey”.
Chris Billam-Smith and Lawrence Okolie are two examples of those who have recently held the British cruiserweight title and gone on to win world honours.
Brown now holds the British and Commonwealth titles, and could look to European title-holder Viddal Riley next.
Riley, 29, last fought in April when he secured a unanimous points decision win over former world title challenger Mateusz Masternak.
When speaking to BBC Sport on Wednesday, the view of Old Trafford – the home of his beloved Manchester United – sat in the background.
Not since 1993, when Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn’s unification bout ended in a draw, has the stadium hosted a boxing match.
Brown said one day headlining at Old Trafford would mean more to him than belts.
Most importantly, Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn sees the vision: “Pat Brown, world championship, Old Trafford. I see it.”
Brown still has a long way to go if he’s to be mentioned in the same breath as former world champion Hatton, but he’s used his latest opportunity to make his mark.
As President Trump tries to convince voters that Democrats have let crime run amok, he’s digging into the country’s political past to cite one of the most controversial campaign advertisements that relied heavily on racist tropes.
During a campaign stop Wednesday in Gastonia, N.C., to stump for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley, Trump resurrected a 1988 George H.W. Bush presidential campaign ad featuring Willie Horton, a Black man convicted of rape and assault after his release through a Massachusetts prison furlough program.
A grainy black-and-white prison photo of Horton was used in the ad targeting then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, who was ahead of Bush in the polls. On Wednesday, Trump evoked the Horton ad in an effort to convince voters Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper, Whatley’s opponent in the Senate race, is soft on crime.
“Willie Horton was a bad guy, really bad guy,” Trump said, before comparing Dukakis’s release of Horton to the pretrial release of a Black man who faces a murder charge for last year’s killing of a white Ukrainian refugee in Charlotte, N.C.
But Cooper was not the governor when the man was released or when he was later charged with killing the refugee.
“Same thing as this, same as, same exact thing,” the president told the crowd in Gastonia.
It’s the second time Trump has invoked Willie Horton while campaigning for his party. Last month during a speech in Las Vegas, Trump called the Charlotte killing a “Willie Horton — modern day” tragedy.
“After the Willie Horton ad dropped, Bush established a lead in the polls and never looked back,” said Andra Gillespie, a political scientist at Emory University outside Atlanta. “They showed the picture, and you ascribed race onto it. It wasn’t sufficiently condemned as racism.”
A spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, which organized the Gastonia campaign rally, defended Trump’s reference to Horton.
“Roy Cooper emptied prisons and released thousands of violent monsters onto North Carolina streets,” RNC National Press Secretary Natalie Baldassarre said in a statement to the Associated Press. “The results had deadly consequences, and every Democrat who supports abolishing or defunding the police, paroling criminals, and implementing lax bail policies will have to answer for their dangerous records in November.”
Trump paints North Carolina as a ‘dangerous state’
Wednesday’s rally cited the Aug. 22, 2025, killing of white 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on a commuter train in Charlotte.
Decarlos Brown Jr., who is Black, faces murder and other charges in Zarutska’s stabbing, which was captured on video. Court records showed that at the time of the attack, Brown had 14 prior cases in Mecklenburg County, including serving five years for robbery with a dangerous weapon. Doctors had diagnosed him with schizophrenia.
Republicans and other influential voices in Trump’s Make America Great Again movement claimed the attack showed how Democratic elected leaders in large cities across the U.S. failed to protect residents, while some conservative commentators suggested Democrats were ignoring an unfounded “black-on-white” crime problem.
“He should have been locked up for many, many years,” Trump said Wednesday of Brown.
“Nobody used to think of North Carolina as a dangerous state, criminally dangerous,” Trump added while blaming Cooper. “It was apple pie, right? Now, it’s one of the most violent, one of the worst in the whole nation.”
According to 2024 FBI crime data, North Carolina ranked 19th for statewide violent-crime rates in a 50-state comparison.
During the Gastonia rally, a mosaic of mug shots was displayed on a large screen for the crowd. Trump claimed Cooper had cut a deal with “radical activists” to release “some of the worst criminals in the nation into North Carolina.”
“He released these people. This is just a small group of them,” the president said, pointing to the mug shots that overwhelmingly featured Black people.
Although it is unclear under what circumstances the people in the mug shots were released, state corrections officials have said Brown was not released early from prison or under Cooper’s COVID-era prisoner-release settlement that Trump referenced.
Before fatally stabbing Zarutska, according to court records, Brown had been on a pretrial release over a misdemeanor offense that was ordered by a magistrate after Cooper left office.
‘Tapping into anger’
Republicans are under pressure to win over swayable voters as the November midterms approach with Democrats pushing to gain control of the House, the Senate, or both. Some political strategists say part of the ploy of adding Horton to the North Carolina Senate campaign is to rile up Trump’s base.
“He’s tapping into the anger to remind Republican voters of what he thinks their first principles are in hopes that will be successful for Republican candidates,” Gillespie said.
“He’s doing this to try and divert attention away from criticism of how he’s governing at the moment,” she added. “Democrats want to make the story of this election Trump’s low approval numbers, the war in Iran, inflation, being preoccupied with things that don’t make a whole lot of sense when there are really serious things going on in the country.”
Dewey Clayton, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Louisville, said Trump and other Republicans may be thinking that what worked before in the 2016 and 2024 elections presumably will work again in this year’s midterms.
“It was very effective,” Clayton said. “You do not necessarily have to look at it as racial, in and of itself, although [race] clearly becomes a component. In 2026, talking about ads going back in the 1980s? I’m sure he had consultants that were basically saying this is tried and true.”
The GOP may need the push in November, Gillespie warns. “I think the motivation by going back to these old strategies is there is real concern about Republican enthusiasm and you might see lower Republican turnout,” she said.
Rhetoric attempts to divert voters’ attention from rising costs
The tactic speaks to desperation by Trump and the Whatley campaign, according to Morgan Jackson, a partner with Nexus Strategies in Raleigh.
“Trump brings up Willie Horton to stoke racial division, something he’s used for the last 10 years,” said Jackson, who is chief strategist for Cooper’s campaign. “It is very clear from the president’s speech last night their only goal is to sow division and hate and lies. Michael Whatley doubles down in support of that effort.”
Jackson also said Trump and Whatley are trying to change the election’s message of “rising inflation and the cost of everything.”
“They want to use inflammatory rhetoric, hate speech and lies to sow division in a chance to win an election,” he said. “By referencing Willie Horton, they are showing their hand very clearly.”
The AP sent an email Thursday seeking comment from Whatley’s Senate campaign.
Williams writes for the Associated Press. Williams reported from Detroit. AP videojournalist Erik Verduzco in Gastonia, N.C., contributed to this report.
“Pat knows the crack, he knows where I’ve been and this is nothing new. I’m blessed to be here but this is nothing new.”
Hedges has yet to lose in 12 professional fights and faces Brown – who has a won all six of his fights by knockout – for the vacant British and Commonwealth cruiserweight titles.
Saturday’s contest was initially due to take place at Planet Ice in Altrincham, but had to be upgraded to the much larger Co-op Live arena due to demand for tickets.
Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn told IFL TV earlier this week he expected a crowd of around 5,000 at the event.
Brown, who represented Team GB at the 2024 Olympics, has a growing fanbase in his home city and was greeted by chants of, ‘Oh, Patrick the Bomber’, in reference to his nickname.
He has looked relaxed during previous media activities during the week but was very intense when he spoke after both fighters tipped the scales at 14st 3lb (90kg).
“This is what I was born to do,” Brown said.
“Since I was seven years old and my dad took me into the gym – this is what I was born to do.”
When Matchroom hastily arranged an event to officially announce Brown’s signing in 2024, around 300 fans turned out to catch a glimpse of the highly touted amateur.
But persuading 2,000 people to sit in a chilly Planet Ice in Altrincham on a Friday night may be an even better example of Brown’s potential drawing power.
Saturday’s fight was originally scheduled to take place there too but support from his fanbase meant a larger venue was required.
“Altrincham will always have a place in my heart, especially with people moaning how cold it is in there,” Brown said.
“The only downfall are the changing rooms are quite small. I’m quite tall and the ceiling is a bit low, so it’ll be nice to be in a big, open changing room.
“I used to go to that ice rink when I was a kid. To think I’ve actually headlined there on my debut – I can look and smile.”
Brown, who has stopped all six of his opponents with four of his wins coming inside two rounds, has fast established himself as a prospect. He is also aware that, with Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury in the twilight of their careers, British boxing is craving its next star.
“It’s nice, but I never look at it and crave it,” he said.
“People will either like me or they won’t. I’m never going to change, so if it comes and the country is getting behind me, that’s brilliant.”
Millie Bobby Brown and her husband Jake Bongiovi have shared the first picture of their new babyCredit: GettyFans went wild for the first look at their latest adopted babyCredit: milliebobbybrown/Instagram
Now, Millie Bobby Brown has thrilled fans by sharing the first picture of her son .
The TV star, who adopted her first child in August last year, shared a picture of her hands placed over her new baby’s.
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Posting the snap on Instagram, the mum-of-two wrote: “Hi little guy!”
Chris Brown is speaking out after lawmakers honored him during his concert in Arlington, Texas, then apologized for the honor.
On Sept. 12, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and Democratic Texas Rep. Venton Jones appeared at AT&T Stadium for Brown and Usher’s R&B Tour, where they honored both singers for their contributions to music. The politicians presented them with a Congressional Record recognition and state proclamation.
“Right now, we are experiencing Black joy to the highest level,” Crockett said on stage. “And I wanted to make sure we document that in the Congressional Record.”
Usher was not on stage when either honor was presented.
The incident sparked public backlash because of Brown’s history of domestic violence. In June 2009, the “Forever” singer pleaded guilty to one count of felony assault for physically attacking Rihanna.
On Monday, the 37-year-old singer and dancer took to social media to apologize to Crockett for the criticism she received following the recognition, uploading a photo of the two to his Instagram story with text that read: “I apologize for any backlash you have to deal with for awarding for me. I’m not political but I move off of frequency and energy and I’m so grateful. Once again, thank you.”
But by Tuesday, Jones released a statement apologizing to his constituents for his role in presenting Brown with a state resolution.
“Over the past few days, I have listened closely to the conversations, concerns, and heartfelt feedback shared across our community following my presentation honoring Chris Brown with a state resolution,” Jones said.
Jones, who first assumed his role in 2023, said that the presentation was an attempt to reach voters ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm election.
“First and foremost, I want to acknowledge the women, the Black women, whom my actions have hurt. In moments like these, I think it’s important to be specific and just as loud with an apology as our original actions were,” Jones added in his statement. “I apologize.”
After Jones’ statement, Brown called out the representative.
“I didn’t ask to be honored because I knew some s— like this would happen and [Venton Jones] immediately started tap dancing and apologizing because he didn’t wanna lose voters and support,” Brown wrote on Sept. 15 on his Instagram. “I have a great idea.. how about [y’all] leave me the f— alone and let me focus on the fans that spent their money to actually see and support me.”
Outside of the most widely recognized incident involving Rihanna — which occurred hours before the couple was set to appear at the 2009 Grammy Awards — there have been multiple domestic violence allegations against Brown, including by his ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran. She was granted a restraining order against the singer in 2017.
Brown has been accused in several other cases of violence against women from 2018 to 2022, either dismissed, settled out of court, or the investigation dropped.
This summer, the singer pleaded guilty to beating up a man in a London nightclub with a glass bottle in 2023. There is an active $50-million suit against Brown and members of his entourage by four male concertgoers who allege they faced a “brutal, violent assault” backstage following a Fort Worth, Texas, show in 2024.
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — In the wood-paneled basement of a union hall, retirees sat in folding chairs last week as they recalled how miles of steel mills and plentiful jobs had slowly disappeared.
“We told our children to get your education, get out, and don’t come back,” said Al Antonelli, who has been a member of Ohio Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 125 for nearly 50 years. “Because there’s no future here, especially blue collar.”
Versions of Youngstown’s story played out across the industrial Midwest, where disappearing jobs and frustration in longtime Democratic strongholds helped fuel Donald Trump’s political rise. When Trump visited as president in 2017, he promised the jobs that had left Ohio were “all coming back.”
“Don’t sell your house,” one of the retirees recalled Trump saying during his Youngstown visit.
Nearly a decade later, the old industrial economy Trump promised to revive has not returned, and Democrats hope the political tide is shifting again. Two years after Democrat Sherrod Brown lost his Senate seat, he’s attempting a comeback by trying to win back some of the same voters who turned on his party. Brown wants to harness dissatisfaction with the economy, the war in Iran and the expansion of artificial intelligence data centers to dislodge Republican Sen. Jon Husted in November.
Brown’s chances of returning to Washington depend largely on whether he can win again in parts of the state that have spent years drifting away from Democrats. His race is also part of a much broader challenge for Democrats, who need to make inroads in Republican-leaning states like Ohio, Iowa, Alaska and Texas if they are to win control of the chamber in November.
Brown outlasted Democrats’ decline in Ohio — until he couldn’t
For years, Brown was able to outrun the Democratic Party’s decline in Ohio. His pro-labor populism resonated with enough swing voters to deliver decades of victories from the statehouse to Congress.
Trump carried Ohio by 8 points in 2016, four years after Barack Obama won it. Yet Brown won his third term in the Senate two years later, in part by continuing to perform well in places like Mahoning County, anchored by Youngstown.
By 2024, even Brown could no longer hold on, losing his reelection campaign to Republican Bernie Moreno by 3.5 percentage points.
Trump carried Mahoning by more than 10,000 votes, a remarkable reversal in a previously loyal Democratic county that Obama had won by nearly 30 percentage points just 12 years earlier. With Trump’s endorsement, Moreno won the county by just 220 votes.
The transformation extends across the Mahoning Valley. Neighboring Trumbull County went from backing Obama by 23 points in 2012 to Trump by nearly 17 points in 2024.
“The Mahoning Valley has struggled with deindustrialization, job loss for years, and the politicians in power have seemed to understand that, but it doesn’t seem like they were doing enough about that,” said Cryshanna Jackson Leftwich, a politics professor at Youngstown State University. “So at some point, 20, 30 years of supporting the candidates, people are gonna say, well, look, this has never worked for us, right?”
Trump and other Republicans offered voters something different, Leftwich said.
“Did they keep their promises? Not at all. Is the county still poor? Absolutely,” she said. “But they at least said they were going to do something different.”
Brown faces a much different environment this year
Democrats’ bid to flip the Senate requires them to net four seats, including by competing deep in Republican territory.
Two months from the end of midterm campaigns, high gas prices stemming from the war in Iran have compounded discontent with the economy.
Trump has also escalated a trade war with neighboring Canada, a fight with particular implications for Ohio. The state exported $17.5 billion in goods to Canada in 2025, or nearly a third of the state’s total exports, according to federal statistics.
Tension from the economic strain is visible in Parma, a working-class Cleveland suburb that split its ticket in 2024, backing both Trump and Brown. At a watch party for the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, supporters who stayed late into the evening cheered Trump but acknowledged that other issues would most likely determine the midterms.
“The real thing that’ll move the needle is going to be economics. Gas prices, grocery prices,” said Parma City Councilor Kevin Kussmaul. “That’s really what’s going to help.”
Parma Republican Party President Doris Peters said similarly that “everyone’s concerned about the high gas prices.”
“It’s all about the economy,” she added. “People remember how much money’s in their wallet and how much is not in their wallet.”
Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) speaks at the Republican convention in Dallas.
(Julia Demaree Nikhinson / Ap Photo/julia Demaree Nikhinson)
The limits of a Democratic rebound in Ohio
Husted presents a different opponent than the one Brown faced two years ago. His restrained demeanor contrasts with Moreno, the brash former car dealer who entered politics as an outsider. Husted spent nearly 25 years in Ohio politics, as a state lawmaker, House speaker, secretary of state and lieutenant governor, before being tapped to fill Vance’s Senate seat.
But Husted may not need to generate much enthusiasm of his own. Except for Brown and candidates for the Ohio Supreme Court, a Democrat hasn’t won a statewide race for state office in Ohio since 2008.
Adam Radogna, 37, who hosted the watch party Wednesday for Parma Republicans at his Italian restaurant, has attended more than 80 Trump rallies and remains an ardent Trump supporter. But Husted is not someone he’s followed closely.
“I don’t know him at all,” Radogna said of Husted. “But I mean, I will vote for him.”
Brown faces enthusiasm problems of his own as he asks voters to return to a 73-year-old former senator whom they rejected just two years ago.
Ellen Zban, 67, a longtime Youngstown resident who said she leans Democratic but has voted for Republicans, said she won’t support Husted because she doesn’t believe he has listened enough to the community.
“I really don’t think he’s done anything for us,” she said. “We never hear from him.”
But Brown isn’t necessarily the candidate she wishes Democrats were offering either.
“He’s my best option,” Zban said. “But I’d like to see younger people running.”
The race is being flooded with money as both sides try to drum up enthusiasm and define the choice for voters. Husted and allied Republican groups have already spent more than $80 million with $86 million more reserved through Election Day, according to AdImpact. Brown and Democratic groups have spent $69 million, with $67 million reserved.
Elon Musk has also waded into the race through his America PAC, which is running online and streaming ads attacking Brown over transgender issues.
“Billionaires are lying to try and bail out their ‘Golden Boy’ because Jon Husted has always put special interests ahead of Ohio,” Brown’s campaign manager, Patrick Eisenhauer, said in a statement.
Brown has attempted to make data centers central to the race, an issue that has seen bipartisan outrage in communities across the country. Brown’s allies have called Husted the face of Ohio’s data center boom, blaming the massive facilities for contributing to rising electricity costs. Husted helped promote Ohio as a destination for data centers while serving as lieutenant governor.
The ads and backlash have generated enough concern among Republicans that an internal party memo described data centers as an “anchor” around Husted in the race.
“Thirty-two years in Washington turned Sherrod Brown into a liar,” Amy Natoce, a spokesperson for Husted, said in a statement. “Jon Husted is fighting to lower costs and help Ohioans keep more of what they earn. Sen. Husted introduced legislation requiring data center companies to pay for the power they use and return excess electricity to the grid.”
The state’s politics could shift again
In Youngstown, the union retirees who watched the Mahoning Valley shift toward Republicans aren’t convinced the movement is permanent.
Rich Troisi, business manager of Laborers’ Local 127, said Republican candidates in recent elections could win support in the area largely by aligning themselves with Trump. This year, he said, that dynamic may not hold.
“I don’t think Donald Trump’s endorsement is going to be what it was,” he said.
Antonelli, the longtime union worker, pointed to independent voters, who he said tend to move with their economic circumstances.
“My dad used to say, it depends on how tight your shoes are. Tight meaning, how’s the money?” he said. “Right now, the shoes are pretty tight, no matter who you are.”
Cappelletti writes for the Associated Press. AP reporter Julie Carr Smyth contributed to this report from Columbus, Ohio.
Montana Brown has baffled fans again when it comes to her parentingCredit: TikTokThe star revealed she wanted an EpiPen for her son Jude – despite him not being diagnosed with an allergyCredit: Instagram
Speaking in her latest TikTok video, Montana began: “Guys, I’m about to have a rant, so beware.
“I went to the GP last week because basically Jude had this really random skin reaction, it was an allergic reaction, but we hadn’t actually given him any food.
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“So I was like, This is weird,’ like his eyes were like swelling out of his head. I was like, He’s definitely allergic to something, but not sure what it is because we haven’t given him any food?
“So I went to the GP to basically say, ‘Look, I’ve got a nut allergy. You can see that on my records. I have anaphylaxis, so I’m worried that he’s now developed an allergy to something that I’m not quite sure what it is yet.
“I’d like to get two kids’ EpiPens so that I can be prepared if he does have a worse reaction to whatever it is. Like in the meantime, like before we figure out, you know, get him allergy tested.”
Continuing her story, the reality star said: “Guess what they said? ‘No’.
Montana often ruffles feathers with her social media postsCredit: InstagramMontana shares two children with her partner Mark O’ConnorCredit: Instagram
“I was like, ‘Why? It’s just so painful.’ Like, I understand that there is a process to these things. But to me, I’m like, what am I going to do with an EpiPen apart from be safe with it?’
“Like, what are the dangers of me having an EpiPen? And I’m like, am I going to have to try and get an EpiPen off the deep dark web?
“Is that what this is coming to? I’m trying to safely protect my child in case he has an anaphylactic shock in my care to buy him enough time to get him to hospital. Like, is it me? Is it me?”
However, fans couldn’t believe what they were hearing, with one said: “They can’t just give you a medication without a diagnosis.”
A second shared: “Are you actually for real?”
A third added: “She’s is honestly on another planet!”
This isn’t the first time Montana has ruffled the feathers of fans.
