Former pro football player from Rock Hill agrees to plead guilty to heroin distribution
A former professional football player from Rock Hill faces more than 10 years in prison after he agreed to plead guilty in federal court to a heroin distribution charge, according to court records.
Justin Maurice Rainey, 36, signed a guilty plea agreement with prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Columbia late Monday in federal court. Documents show the plea agreement includes a sentence of 126 months in prison if a federal judge agrees at a later sentencing date.
No date has been set for Rainey’s next court appearance or sentencing.
Rainey agreed to plead guilty to possession of more than 100 grams of a heroin mixture with intent to distribute. He was arrested by FBI agents in Rock Hill in 2019, federal court records show.
The charge carries a minimum of five years up to 40 years in prison.
Rainey admitted in the plea agreement to dealing the drugs and waives any right to appeal, according to the documents.
The case was continued several times in the past year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rainey played football at Northwestern High School from 1998 to 2002 and was an All-Region selection. He played college football at Middle Tennessee State and Florida Atlantic through 2006 and later played professionally in Canada. He signed for a time with the New York Jets of the NFL.
Efforts by The Herald to reach Rainey’s lawyer, federal public defender Dan Leonardi, and federal prosecutors were unsuccessful Tuesday.
Past Rainey convictions
Rainey has past convictions in South Carolina court in York County dating back to 2011, court records show. He was sentenced in 2011 to five years probation after pleading guilty to three weapons charges, court records show.
In 2013, Rainey pleaded guilty in York County court to two counts of drug possession and resisting arrest, according to court records. He also has convictions for DUI and failure to have a required ignition lock system in a vehicle, records show.
Rainey’s case involving a former pro football player from Rock Hill is the third in recent years: Former Canadian Football League star Jonathan Hefney of Rock Hill was sentenced to nine years in a South Carolina prison in 2019 for cocaine trafficking. And in April, former NFL player Phillip Adams shot six people to death then killed himself in York County outside Rock Hill.
This story was originally published July 13, 2021 at 10:58 AM with the headline "Former pro football player from Rock Hill agrees to plead guilty to heroin distribution."
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