Tony Farmer – Video has emerged showing a prominent Cleveland area high school basketball star assaulting his girlfriend.
It shows Farmer slapping and then repeatedly kicking ex-girlfriend Andrea Lane in the head as she cowered in a corner. Farmer later sent threatening text messages to the woman.
The disturbing image likely a key role in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Pamela Barker’s decision on Thursday to sentence Farmer to three years in jail on kidnapping and assault charges.
A stunned Farmer collapsed to the floor in disbelief after hearing his punishment read aloud.
The 6-foot-7 blue chip small forward prospect, who would have been a high school senior this year, was being wooed by the likes of college basketball heavyweights Michigan State, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio State, West Virginia, Xavier and Dayton. That mattered little as Barker sent him to jail on counts of kidnapping, assault, robbery and intimidation from the May incident that took place in the lobby and parking lot of Lane’s apartment complex.
Lane, who had angered Farmer by breaking up with him, asked that he not be sent to prison, but made it clear that she wanted nothing more to do with him.
Farmer’s mother also begged for leniency for her son, testifying that he was a good kid who had been in love and had “made a bad decision.”
A second-team All-State pick at Gar-Field Heights High School last season, Farmer was dressed in an orange jailhouse jumpsuit with his hands cuffed behind his back when he faced the gallery of people gathered in the courtroom for his turn to speak. He apologized to Lane, her family and to his own family.
The judge said she would review the sentence after 180 days.
The 18-year-old Farmer had pleaded guilty to the charges in July, but had expected to only be placed on probation.
He became the second elite high school basketball prospect to make the news this week with issues of domestic violence. This past Saturday, Seton Hall commit and Baltimore native Aquille Carr was arrested for allegedly beating up his girlfriend.
