The Phoenix Mercury star has been in custody in Russia since her February arrest, which saw her charged with smuggling of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their precursors, or analogues, and with illegal acquisition, storage, transportation, manufacture, processing of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, or their analogues. Griner pleaded guilty at the second hearing she attended in early July to all of her charges.
While entering her plea, per Reuters, the basketball player said she had not acted deliberately.
Ahead of the verdict, the WNBA star became emotional as she addressed the court.
Griner said, “I would like to apologize to my team for the damage I did to them.” “This home is second to me and I just wanted to make my teammates proud and win championships.”