Browns' Donte Stallworth Gets 30 Days for DUI

June 18, 2009 — -- Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte Stallworth begins his second day of a 30-day jail sentence today for killing a pedestrian while driving drunk in Florida.

The 28-year-old National Football League star's abbreviated jail term came because of his cooperation with investigators and the wishes of the victim's family.

Stallworth pleaded guilty Tuesday to manslaughter while driving under the influence of alcohol in exchange for a lighter sentence. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail for the car crash that killed a pedestrian in Miami Beach.

The player had faced up to 15 years in jail for the death of 59-year-old construction worker Mario Reyes, who apparently was running across the street to catch a bus when the athlete hit him with his car March 14.

The average jail sentence for similar crimes in Florida is 10 years, but Stallworth reached a confidential financial settlement with Reyes' family.

"I am truly sorry," Stallworth said at his DUI manslaughter sentencing.

Authorities also suspended Stallworth's driver's license for life and ordered him to pay $10,000 in fines and perform 1,000 hours of community service.

After his release from jail, Stallworth must serve two years of house arrest and spend eight years on probation.

Another one of the terms of Stallworth's plea deal is that he has to make a $225,000 donation to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or M.A.D.D. But according to M.A.D.D. national president Laura Dean-Mooney, the group doesn't want Stallworth's money.

"If we took the settlement, we would agree with the settlement, and we don't agree," Dean-Mooney explained. "Drunk driving is a serious, serious crime. In this case, Mr. Stallworth killed someone, and we believe that taking the money would not send the right message to the community and to the nation.

M.A.D.D. also disagrees with the abbreviated sentence for a crime Dean-Mooney said is "100 percent preventable."

"We want to see that the punishment fit the crime," she said.

Stallworth might be allowed to play football during the time he is under house arrest, if his community control officer and the NFL allow it, because people under house arrest are usually permitted to go to work or school, a spokeswoman for the Miami-Dade County state attorney's office said.

M.A.D.D. is pressuring the NFL to make his league-related punishment more than a "slap on the wrist."

"A person died -- a person who was completely innocent, doing nothing wrong. So putting him back on the field would probably send the wrong message to his fans and to the rest of the NFL players who have chosen to make bad decisions and drink and drive as well," Dean-Mooney said.

Stallworth had been partying in Miami when he struck and killed Reyes. Blood tests showed the athlete had a blood alcohol level of 0.126 -- well above Florida's legal limit of 0.08 -- when he hit Reyes with his black Bentley GT coupe as Reyes ran across the MacArthur Causeway after finishing his shift as a crane operator.