Athletes and celebrities, actually anyone with power and means, usually have alternates in various aspects of our life. That also includes having a “smash pad” as a place to bring your varied jump offs and randoms so they don’t know the real location where you live and a spot that wifey doesn’t know about.
Usually that works out pretty well but sometimes things go bad. Take for example and triple shared spot for Bears Brandon Marshall, Titans Chris Johnson and former NFL WR Mike Sims-Walker. The three friends had a collective spot in Orlando that they utilized for various activities.
A house linked to the shooting of a 15-year-old girl in Pine Hills last year has ties to current and recent National Football League athletes, newly available records in the case obtained by the Orlando Sentinel show.
One of the players, former University of Central Florida and Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Mike Sims-Walker, was directly involved in the investigation, records show, at one point entering an Orange County Sheriff’s Office interview room to talk with his cousin, a victim in the case who authorities suspected was lying.
Prosecutors have described the home on Robbins Avenue as a nondescript setting where pro athletes could hang out and bring women while visiting Orlando — away from the view of the media.
Gunfire erupted after a burglary there July 29, and a stray bullet struck Danielle Sampson as she rode in her parents’ minivan, rendering the Apopka High athlete severely brain-damaged.
Prosecutor Nicole Pegues described the Robbins Avenue home as a place NFL pros go “if they want to step out on their girlfriends and their wives … outside of anywhere else where media might catch them.”
In a newly available videotaped interview of the state’s key witness in the shooting, Chester “Chad” Joseph, three current or former NFL players are named: Sims-Walker, Chicago Bears receiver Brandon Marshall and Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson.
Joseph, a resident who describes himself as a “manager” for Sims-Walker and Johnson and a friend of Marshall’s, downplays their involvement with the house: “I use their [homes] a lot … all I was doing was really returning the favor. … When [the players] come here now, I got somewhere where you can go on and slide you a little chick.”
“We can minimize it if we know the truth,” says Sgt. David Spall. He adds, jokingly: “Dude, I got Chris Johnson drafted on my fantasy-football team. I don’t want nothing ugly coming out of this.”
Spall stressed that he was focused on solving the shooting case: “Nobody cares if Chris Johnson, Brandon … whomever comes to your house to knock boots with a chick. … Nobody cares if you had … 500 pounds of prime weed in that house.”
In the video interview, Spall suggested to Joseph that the NFL players’ presence made the house a target: “You said so yourself, you had to tell [Johnson], ‘Dude, stop parking your Porsche out in the front. Pull it around the back.’”
It doesn’t appear that the athletes actually did anything wrong other than being in the wrong place and an unfortunate incident happened from someone trying to snag an athlete’s “wealth” or a drug deal gone bad depending on which side you’re on. I just wonder what the goal was in releasing the interrogation video. The suspect was convicted of the shooting in March however, the defendant’s lawyer wants to reopen the trial using this video as evidence that there was additional information they weren’t made aware of.
But it all goes back to be careful of your associations. You never know what you’ll get twisted up in.
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Jill MunroeJill Munroe is a Los Angeles-based host, producer, and writer. You can find her work on sites such as FoxSports.com, EURweb.com, and MSN.com. Munroe is a current member of the African-American Film Critics Association and the National Association of Black Journalists. Munroe has also been a frequent guest on ESPN radio and Yahoo Sports. In 2015, Munroe released her first book, "PostGame Pass: access into "the life" JillMunroe.com