Ex-NFL Player Sentenced for Domestic Violence

UPDATE Feb 28, 2023 5:03 PM CST

Former NFL running back Zac Stacy has been sentenced to six months in prison and a year of probation in connection with a 2021 attack on his ex-girlfriend that was captured in a disturbing video. USA Today reports that as part of a plea agreement, the 31-year-old pleaded guilty to two counts of mischief and charges of aggravated battery were dropped. He was remanded into custody after a hearing in Florida on Monday. Ex-girlfriend Kristin Evans, whose child with Stacy was five months old at the time of the Nov. 2021 attack, said Stacy's behavior improved significantly after therapy and she believes mental health treatment would be more appropriate than jail time, People reports. "I have to speak to this man and exchange a child and co-parent a child with this man for the rest of my life," she said.

Dec 14, 2021 1:02 AM CST

Former NFL player Zac Stacy told police his ex "staged" the attack on her that got him arrested last month in Florida. In arrest footage obtained by TMZ, Stacy says Kristin Evans was upset because he didn't want to be in a relationship with her anymore. "It's just a case of just bitterness, man," Stacy can be heard telling Orlando police officers in the video. "That's why she did this. The whole assault thing, she staged it. She set me up. The whole thing was staged. All she's trying to do is get money out of me. She got a reaction out of me." He says Evans, knowing he was fragile emotionally after having just gotten out of rehab for anxiety and depression, "took it this far" and was then "upset that she got caught" and started "trying to destroy my whole reputation."

He claimed Evans was keeping him from seeing the 4-month-old son they share because of his lack of interest in a relationship with her, the New York Post reports. "I filed a petition on her to just get my rights on paper, and she’s just been—I don’t know if it’s postpartum [depression]—she’s just been unstable ever since," Stacy told the cops. Evans released a video statement Monday saying there's no way she could have staged the attack on her that was caught on video. "This is what abusers do. They will make you seem like you're the crazy one and that they're the victim," she says. She adds that the way officers spoke to Stacy in the arrest video, seeming to "console" him, was disturbing to her. (More NFL stories.)