Justin Bannan, 41, was convicted of attempted murder and first-degree assault at his arraignment hearing on Thursday in Boulder, Colorado
Former NFL lineman Justin Bannan has been convicted of attempted murder and first-degree assault after shooting an acupuncturist in Colorado in 2019.
The former Denver Broncos player, 41, was found guilty of the October 2019 shooting by a jury on Friday, after they spent eight hours deliberating on his fate.
Bannon told police he was being hunted by the Russian Mafia when he shot Ashley Marie in the shoulder when she opened up her acupuncture room on October 16, 2019. He was a partial-owner of the building which housed Marie's salon, and knew her as a passing acquaintance.
He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity at his hearing at his hearing in Boulder, Colorado. But jurors agreed with prosecutors claims that Bannan was not mentally-ill at the time of the shooting, and that he was only behaving erratically because he was high on drugs, with investigators believing he'd used cocaine shortly beforehand.
Bannon, a 12 year NFL veteran, was found guilty of four crimes, including attempted murder, which carries a sentence of between 16 and 48 years in prison. He was taken into custody shortly after being convicted on Friday, and will be sentenced on November 5.
Bannan's defense team is claiming he suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE - brain damage typically found in those with a history of concussions - which he says he developed during his football career.
He told police in his arrest affidavit that he suffers from hydrocephalus, which can cause loss of reasoning skills among
