A 40-year-old man has pled guilty to charges of stalking and harassing UConn women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers, ESPN reports.
Robert Cole Parmalee, of Grants Pass, Oregon, entered a guilty plea in Connecticut’s Rockville Superior Court on Wednesday and was handed a one-year suspended sentence and three years’ probation after he was arrested and charged with breach of peace, electronic stalking and harassment in September. A protective order put in place in September will remain in effect until Jan. 4, 2064.
According to the plea agreement, Parmalee will be prohibited from entering the state of Connecticut, in addition to arenas, hotels and practice facilities that the UConn women’s basketball team is using. He will also be barred from all WNBA arenas and facilities, the State’s Attorney told ESPN.
Connecticut State Police arrested Parmalee on Aug. 27 as he was walking along the highway near Bradley International Airport after he flew cross-country to Hartford, Connecticut. When asked by police what brought him to Connecticut, Parmalee told authorities that he was going to see Bueckers, claiming she was a “friend.”
ESPN reports that Parmalee first began seeking contact with Bueckers in February. An affidavit on an arrest warrant application for Parmalee cites that he would send videos to Bueckers via Instagram. Bueckers says she never responded.
Paige Bueckers during UConn’s game against Notre Dame.
Parmalee would also post threatening messages on his social media pages, with one post on his TikTok reading, “And if I cannot live with a woman of my choosing, (Bueckers), then I will choose to die, and I will choose to take all of you that (op)pose me, oppose us, to hell, and return, king…”
In court on Wednesday, Parmalee apologized to the state of Connecticut and UConn. He’s set to leave the state for Washington Wednesday evening, his lawyer said. “My client had requested that (Parmalee) return home, get the evaluation and treatment that he needs, and that she be left alone,” Robert Britt, who represented Bueckers in court on Wednesday, told ESPN. “We’re very happy with that.”
Contributing: Jon Hoefling
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Man pleads guilty to charges of stalking, harassing Paige Bueckers
