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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 8:14 a.m., Friday, March 13, 2009

Man convicted in Mich. death of football player

Associated Press

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Michigan jury has convicted a 19-year-old man of manslaughter in the beating death of a college football player.

Eric Freeman of the Grand Rapids suburb of Wyoming was convicted Friday in the January 2008 death of 21-year-old Jonathan Krystiniak of Grandville.

Krystiniak was a defensive lineman at Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kan.

Five people were charged in the case. Freeman was the only one who went to trial.

The other four defendants accepted plea deals, including former small college quarterback Casey Therriault of Wyoming, Mich. He was sentenced in January to six months in jail after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Therriault quit school after playing the 2007 season at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, Calif.