Former 49ers football star Aldon Smith was sentenced Friday to a year in prison for drunk driving after he rear-ended a Recology truck in Redwood City in 2021 and reportedly offered the driver $1,000 not to alert police.
Smith, the 49ers single-season layoff record holderwill serve time in the San Mateo County Jail, according to San Mateo County Superior Court records.
The former pass rusher was arrested in December 2021 after the collision on an exit ramp from Interstate 280. The driver of the truck he hit suffered minor injuries.
Smith, 33, initially pleaded not guilty to drunk driving but changed his plea to no contest in January after judge Kevin Dunleavy offered a prison sentence of no more than 16 months for the troubled former NFL player.
Dunleavy went beyond the legally required three years of probation in his warrant Friday, ordering five years of probation for Smith after he is released, court documents show.
California Highway Patrol officers had been called to the scene of the off-ramp accident and found two empty liquor bottles in Smith’s truck, authorities claimed. Smith declined a field sobriety test, but a blood test showed a blood alcohol level of 0.288 percent, more than three times the legal limit, investigators said.
The former NFL star’s promising career — four seasons with the 49ers and stints with the Oakland Raiders, Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks — was marred and ultimately derailed by convictions for drunk driving and domestic violence and battery charges, many of which were in the area. from San Jose, where he lived. He was suspended from the competition three times.
In 2012, Smith suffered minor stab wounds at a house he was renting in the hills east of San Jose, during a scuffle at a large party that left two male guests injured in gunfire.
Smith was drafted seventh overall at the University of Missouri by the 49ers in 2011 and set an NFL record with 33.5 sacks in his first two seasons. But the 49ers released him in 2015 after a DUI arrest, his third since joining the team. The Raiders released him in 2018 after an arrest on suspicion of domestic violence, assault and wrongful imprisonment. Soon after, he was suspended indefinitely by the league.
In the 2020 off-season, he was reinstated and signed with the Cowboys, starting all 16 games. He signed with Seattle the following spring before another battery arrest led to his release months later.
