According to ESPN.com, former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velazquez was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday afternoon in Santa Clara Country court in San Jose, California for a shooting that took place in February 2022.
Velazquez has been out of jail on house arrest since November 2022 and received 1,283 days credit for time served.
Velazquez pleaded no contest to felony attempted murder, assault, and weapons charges in August.
The charges stem from an incident where Velazquez allegedly chased after and reportedly shot at a vehicle of a man accused of molesting his son. The man’s father who was with him in the vehicle was shot and injured in the incident.
Velazquez did take responsibility for his actions publicly in a rare interview that was released recently.
“From what I can say as far as myself, the way that I handled things was not the way to do it,” Velasquez said on his former teammate Kyle Kingsbury’s podcast. “We cannot put the law in our own hands. … I know what I did, and I know what I did was very dangerous to other people, you know? Not just people involved, but innocent people. I understand what I did and I’m willing to do everything I have to [do] to pay that back.”
The man— Harry Goularte is accused of molesting Velazquez’s then 4-year-old son at a daycare, which was owned by Goularte’s mother.
Goularte is set for criminal trial June 2 on one felony charge of lewd acts with a minor. He has pleaded not guilty.
Velazquez retired from the UFC in 2019.
