Jermain Taylor, the boxer, was in Circuit Court today for sentencing on assault convictions by Circuit Judge Leon Johnson. 

The judge gave Taylor six-year suspended sentences on eight of nine pending charges, and  a one-year sentence on one, a marijuana charge . He also gave him 120 hours of community service over three years, a $2,000 fine, an order to undergo drug screens and an order to have no contact with the victims of the assaults.

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According to reports from KARK and others in the hearing:

The prosecution asked for a 10-year sentence, or a lengthy suspended sentence in which he could be held accountable for future misbehavior; Taylor’s lawyers asked for probation.

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Taylor entered negotiated guilty pleas last year in three assault cases — that he shot at a cousin at his home; that he assaulted members of a family at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade, and that he assaulted a man in a rehab center where he was housed.

No agreement was made in the deal on sentencing, with the expectation it would be set according to probation office and other reports in the interim.

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In his court appearance today, Taylor apologized for his actions. No victims testified, but several witnesses testified for Taylor, who is 37.

Taylor’s life has been in disarray since his time as a high-earning middleweight champion fighter, though he has attempted to return to training. His his money has evaporated and he faces a variety of civil actions, both debt suits and damage suits brought by people he’s accused of assaulting.

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His attorneys said Taylor had successfully completed rehabilitation and was ready to box again.

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