Former NFL tight end Kevin Ware Jr. has pleaded guilty to the 2021 killing of his girlfriend, Taylor Pomaski, agreeing to a 30-year prison sentence for murder and evidence tampering. The plea came just before jury selection was to begin, the Houston Chronicle reports. Pomaski disappeared in April 2021; her remains were found eight months later in a Harris County, Texas, ditch, reduced to bones after being burned. Ware, 44, played for the Washington Commanders, San Francisco 49ers, and the Oakland Raiders between 2003 and 2005. He was indicted in July 2022, over a year after Pomaski vanished.
Court records allege Ware killed Pomaski by multiple means, possibly including a knife, blunt force, or strangulation, though his attorney said it would have been difficult to prove how Pomaski died. One woman told investigators that Ware admitted to cutting Pomaski's throat and burning her body, and that he photographed the fire. Ware accepted the plea after a judge warned it would soon expire and noted that a trial could have resulted in a lengthier sentence. Prosecutors were prepared to file additional charges if he went to trial.
The 30-year sentence will be served at the same time as a separate 15-year sentence Ware received in 2022 for unrelated drug and weapons offenses. When Pomaski disappeared after a party at her house, an ex-boyfriend said she had been in an abusive relationship. "Taylor reached out to me many times throughout the month of April," Eric Zuleger told KHOU11. "We were talking about her getting out of there, getting back on her feet, getting herself set and stabilized." (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)