Former Florida captain Tony Joiner makes formal plea in murder case of wife, sentence revealed

Former Florida star Tony Joiner reached a plea deal last month in the 2016 murder case involving his wife, Heyzel Obando, and new court documents filed with Lee County have revealed the potential length of his sentence.

Joiner’s plea deal calls for a 25-year sentence on his charge of second degree murder with a firearm, according to a report from the Tampa Bay Times.

The former Gators safety and team captain is credited with already serving 1,455 days in jail. Meanwhile, he will not be allowed to contact the victim’s family, which includes his two daughters.

The two children were put into custody of Obando’s mother, Isabel Martinez, in 2017, well before Joiner’s arrest.

Tony Joiner was arrested in 2019 after an episode of Cold Justice, a true crime show on Oxygen, aired featuring the murder of Heyzel Obando. Obando was murdered on Valentine’s Day in 2016 in Fort Myers, Fla., at the age of 26.

At the time, police credited the show with helping advance an investigation that had gone cold.

A month after Obando’s death in 2016, Joiner was held at the Lee County Jail on a violation of probation charge. He was released from jail May 8, 2016, according to court records.

Those records revealed Joiner was previously arrested twice for beating Obando.

Obando was shot in the head and killed in 2016.

Tony Joiner was a star on Florida’s 2006 national championship team, and he was considered a key veteran on the team’s very young 2007 squad, which would later form the core of a 2008 national championship team. He was a savvy safety.

But while Florida had plenty of success on the field during that time period, the era was also marred by a series of high-profile arrests and off-the-field incidents.

Tony Joiner’s murder charge was not the first involving a former Florida player from that era. Tight end Aaron Hernandez was convicted of the murder of Odin Lloyd in 2013.

Following news of Hernandez’ arrest, Florida scrubbed all recognition of Hernandez at its team facilities.

That era of Florida football will get some additional press coverage in the coming months, with Netflix set to release a documentary featuring the 2006-09 Gators. The documentary will be titled “Swamp Kings,” released under the ‘Untold’ banner.

Various former players and former coach Urban Meyer were interviewed for the documentary.