bad day for clarett

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Clarett agrees to plea deal, will serve 3½ yearsESPN.com news services

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Former Ohio State football star Maurice Clarett agreed Monday to plead guilty to aggravated robbery and carrying a concealed weapon. The deal would send him to prison for at least 3½ years and end two criminal cases against him.

The agreement was announced by Judge David Fais on the day jury selection was to begin in a case in which Clarett is accused of holding up two people outside a bar.

The concealed weapon charge was from his August arrest after a highway chase with police who found four loaded guns in Clarett's sport utility vehicle after they spiked the tires. Police used pepper spray to subdue and handcuff Clarett, who was wearing a bulletproof vest.

The deal called for a 7½-year sentence with release possible after 3½ years. The 22-year-old player also agreed to serve five years of probation after the prison sentence.

Sources told the Columbus Dispatch that prosecutors agreed not to object to an early release under the plea deal. The newspaper reported that prosecutor Ron O'Brien approved the deal, as did the victims of a Jan. 1 robbery in which Clarett took a cell phone from two people after displaying a gun in his waistband.

Information from The Associated