Sharper sentenced to 18 years

Former NFL star Darren Sharper was sentenced in federal court in New Orleans on Thursday to more than 18 years in prison for drugging women in order to rape them — double the sentence recommended by prosecutors.

One of Sharper’s victims — the only one to speak at his sentencing hearing — rebuffed his display of contrition.

“For the list of people you’ve done this to: Go to hell,” she said.

The former New Orleans Saints safety, jailed since February 2014, apologized and appeared chastened by his fall from grace.

“I would like to apologize a thousand times,” the 40-year-old Sharper said. Later, he said, looking down and sighing, “I’m still trying to figure out why I made some of these choices.”

His voice quivered and choked with emotion when he apologized to his parents.

U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo, in sentencing Sharper, told him she couldn’t understand how he did what he did, since he was college educated and obviously had grown up “in one of the most loving households.”

Sharper had pleaded guilty in a New Orleans courtroom to drugging three women so he could rape them.

He also has pleaded guilty or no contest in state courts in Louisiana, Arizona, California and Nevada to charges arising from allegations of drugging and raping women.

The sentence, 18 years and four months’ imprisonment, was 15 months short of the maximum. Sharper also was fined $20,000. His sentence will run concurrently with any state sentence.

The judge said he will be on three years’ supervised release after he gets out of prison, including “sex treatment conditions” and registration as a sex offender.

Sharper and his friend Brandon Licciardi ,a former sheriff ’s deputy in neighboring St. Bernard Parish, put anti-anxiety drugs or sedatives into women’s drinks so they could rape them, according to a 15-page statement signed as part of Sharper’s plea agreement.

Milazzo has scheduled sentencing Oct. 13 for Licciardi and a second New Orleans co-defendant, Erik Nunez.