The man who attempted to kill Jacksonville Jaguars offensive lineman Richard Collier last year will spend the rest of his life in prison, a judge ruled Thursday.
 
Tyrone Hartsfield was convicted in November of shooting Collier more than a dozen times as the ball player waited in his SUV outside an apartment complex in Jacksonville.

Collier survived the brutal attack but was paralyzed from the waist down, and his left leg was amputated. He still has four bullets lodged in his body.
 
Judge Mallory Cooper could have given Hartsfield, 33, the minimum sentence of 25 years in prison, but because of the defendant’s long history of crime, Cooper gave him the max, life without the possibility of parole.

There is not a sentence I could give that would address what happened to Mr. Collier," Cooper said. "It was a cowardly act; it was a brutal act."

At the sentencing hearing, Collier, 28, wept as he told the court that Hartsfield had robbed him of the best years of his football career. "What I've had to go through I would not wish on my worst enemy," Collier said.

The penalty matched the crime, said Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda. “It is an appropriate sentence," he said.