7 of the most high-profile crimes involving athletes

Former National Football League star Aaron Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday after a jury found him guilty of murdering semiprofessional football player Odin Lloyd in an industrial park near his Massachusetts home in 2013, concluding the first of two murder trials he faces this year.

Hernandez isn’t the first known athlete involved with a major crime, not even in recent years.

Ray Rice

Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice last year became the epicenter for a series of investigations that would lead to the NFL strengthening its policies on domestic violence and sexual assault.

O.J. Simpson

Twenty years ago, Simpson went on trial for the killings of of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. Brown had been found dead on June 12, 1994, stabbed multiple times in the head and neck. Goldman had similar fatal wounds. Simpson famously received two “not guilty” verdicts in October 1995.

War Machine

MMA fighter Jonathona Koppenhaver, known as War Machine, pleaded not guilty in November to charges that he attacked his former girlfriend, Christy Mack, and her friend. He was arrested in August after fleeing Las Vegas and is accused of brutally choking and punching Mack and Corey Thomas. His trial is pending.

Michael Vick

Around 50 pit bulls were seized by authorities when Michael Vick was arrested at the end of an investigation into a dog-fighting ring. Then a quarterback with the Atlanta Falcons, Vick served 18 months and was released from federal prison in Kansas. He was reinstated to the NFL in 2009.

Tonya Harding

In a famous incident, figure skater Tonya Harding was accused in a scheme to injure a competitor at the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Skater Nancy Kerrigan was attacked but Shane Stant, a man Harding’s ex-husband had hired. Kerrigan’s leg wasn’t broken, but was injured badly enough that she’d have to drop out. Harding’s ex-husband, Stant and two others served time for the attack but Harding’s involvement was debated in the media for months before and after sentencing.

Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Mayweather, who lives in Las Vegas, dealt with the resurfacing of his history with domestic abuse. He was accused in 2010 by his ex-girlfriend of beating her. He served two months of a 90-day sentence. According to the Washington Post, Mayweather has been accused by five women on seven physical assaults.

Mike Tyson

Tyson, another man with multiple Las Vegas connections, served three years of a six-year sentence in the 1990s for raping a teenage beauty-pageant contestant. He claimed that she consented to having sex with him and denied claims that he misled her. According to The Tech in 1992, the issue of her consent became a major part of the trial.

Sally McNeil

In 1995, professional bodybuilder Sally McNeil shot her husband once in the abdomen and once in the head on Valentine’s Day with a 12-gauge shotgun. Her two children ran from the home screaming. McNeil had a history of violence, evident from her 1993 attack on a bouncer and a 1990 attack on a woman who had an affair with her husband. She was sentenced to 19 years-to-life in 1995 and is in the Central Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, Calif.

Contact Kristen DeSilva at 702-477-3895 or kdesilva@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @kristendesilva

Reuters and CNN contributed to this report.