Former Seton Hall basketball player Kelly Whitney plead guilty on Aug. 29, to the 2010 home invasion burglary of an off-campus residence in South Orange occupied by university students.
The plea is to the charges of burglary, criminal restraint, and conspiracy to commit burglary. In the deal Whitney is expected to be sentenced to three years in a New Jersey state prison when he will be sentenced in Nov. 7.
Whitney originally plead not guilty, and went to trial in May, but it was declared a mistrial on June 1 by the Honorable Alfonse Cifelli.
In the deal Whitney will be sentenced according to the No Early Release Act, stating that he must serve 85 percent of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole. Whitney will also be placed on three years probation following his release.
"The victims bravely confronted Kelly Whitney during the trial,'' said Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Ruzich, who tried the case in a press release. "Today's guilty plea demonstrates that Whitney was not ready to face his victims again.''
Whitney was arrested with former Seton Hall player Robert "Styx" Mitchell on Mar. 16, 2010 for entering an off-campus house and duct taping the students inside the house and taking cash and other valuables. One of the men also brought out a handgun towards the victims in the attack.
Mitchell plead guilty earlier in the case and testified that Whitney was the mastermind of the robbery.
Stephen Valenti can be reached at stephen.valenti@student.shu.edu
