Former UM football player accused of head-scissoring, hair-pulling battery on neighbor
A 6-foot-9, 300-pound former University of Miami football player remains in jail after being accused of an assault on a female neighbor.
Bond for Sunny Odogwu, 26, was set Tuesday at $58,500 on charges of burglary with assault or battery, false imprisonment, misdemeanor battery, pulling a false fire alarm and criminal mischief. On Monday, Odogwu showed up at the main Miami police station with attorney Mark Leftcourt to surrender, and invoked his right to remain silent.
An arrest affidavit says the alleged attack occurred around midnight, as Jan. 18, Odogwu’s birthday, became Jan. 19.
A woman told Miami cops that a fire alarm between midnight and 12:20 a.m. brought her out of her apartment at Camden Brickell Apartments, 51 SW 11th St. She said she saw the towering Odogwu, shirtless and in blue jeans, walking toward her and saying, “We need to get out of here.”
When Odogwu got close enough, she said, he grabbed her by the face, tried to kiss her and forced her into her apartment. After causing some damage, she said, he dragged her by her hair out of her apartment and toward the electrical room as she screamed for help.
Odogwu “then stood above the victim, positioned his legs on either side of her head,” the affidavit said, then “locked the victim’s head between his thighs and began squeezing her head while pulling and ripping her hair.”
As she kept trying to extricate herself, she said, Odogwu screamed, “No one is going to come help you.”
She said she got away and ran to a neighbor “who was in the hallway yelling at the suspect to stop.” She filed her report with the police on Jan. 22 and picked Odogwu out of a photo lineup on Jan. 24.
Odogwu played three seasons for the Hurricanes, starting two of 12 games at offensive tackle as a redshirt sophomore in 2015, then four games in 2016 before suffering a season-ending ankle injury. He played a final season at UCLA as a graduate transfer.
This story was originally published January 30, 2019 at 1:37 PM.
