FAYETTEVILLE — Former Arkansas basketball player Ron Huery is to serve a five-year prison sentence for violating his probation and attempting to break into his ex-girlfriend's home.
Circuit Judge William Storey on Monday sentenced Huery to five years for his guilty plea to criminal mischief for the attempted break-in. Huery is to serve a concurrent three years for violating probation from a 2005 suspended sentence in a fleeing case.
Storey suspended an additional five years, a span in which Huery will have to stay out of trouble after his release or face the prospect of being locked up again.
Huery played on the Razorbacks' 1990 Final Four team and in 2005 graduated with a bachelor's degree in education. Huery had 29 credit hours remaining after he completed his time playing for the Razorbacks in 1991. Huery is No. 13 in scoring for the Razorbacks, with 1,550 points and had a career per-game scoring average of 11.6 points.
In 2005, Huery was sentenced to a year in jail plus five years probation for his conviction for fleeing from police. He was arrested Feb. 11 for violating his probation from that sentence, Deputy Prosecutor Charles Duell said.
Officials said Huery's ex-girlfriend called police and said Huery was trying to break into her home. Police officers witnessed Huery breaking the front windows of the home and then using his SUV to ram a pickup in the woman's driveway.
Officers used an electronic stun gun to subdue Huery, police said at the time.
The arrest followed a 1994 conviction for attempting to sell cocaine, second-offense driving while intoxicated and driving with a revoked license, for which Huery was fined and sentenced to eight months probation. Huery sold his Final Four ring for $1,500 to settle a $3,000 debt with the city of Memphis for unpaid traffic fines from 1991.
Huery is free on bond until June 23, when he is to report to jail.
After receiving his degree in 2005, Huery said he wanted to be productive and avoid any further troubles.
"At my toughest point, I didn't really know where I was going," Huery said in June 2005. "I didn't know what my calling was. Through some years of going through a lot of trauma, I found my calling, and my calling is to deal with kids. I love kids."
Duell said a residential burglary charge was dropped in a plea agreement because Huery never entered the woman's home. Also, Duell said the woman now lives in Tahlequah, Okla., and told prosecutors that she no longer wanted to pursue the matter, which helped Duell decide to reach a plea agreement with Huery.