Former Florida State football standout, Giants WR Travis Rudolph found not guilty of murder

Former Florida State and New York Giants football player Travis Rudolph was found not guilty Wednesday on all counts in a murder case stemming from a 2021 shooting death at his Florida home.

A West Palm Beach jury issued the not guilty verdicts on one first-degree murder charge and three counts of attempted first-degree murder. They reached the decision after four hours of deliberation at the conclusion of a two-week trial. The Palm Beach Post reports that the jury had the option of convicting him of lesser charges, including second-degree murder and manslaughter, but rejected them.

Per WPTV, Rudolph had been under house arrest since Circuit Judge Jeffrey Gillen rejected a "stand your ground" defense in March of 2022. The court ordered his house arrest monitoring device to be removed after the jury's verdict.

The charges stem from a shooting at Rudolph's Lake Park, Florida home on April 7, 2021. Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office documents state that Rudolph shot two men during an altercation. Sebastien Jean-Jacques was found dead in the passenger seat of a car after fleeing the scene. Tyler Robinson was found alive in the back seat with a gunshot wound, the Post reports. Two other men were uninjured.

Rudolph testified that the four men showed up at his doorstep after midnight to confront him about a dispute that he had with a woman named Dominique Jones. Rudolph told the court that Jones hit him numerous times during the confrontation and denied accusations that he had hit her. He said that Jones told him after the confrontation: "I'm gonna have my brother and them come over there and f*** you up and kill you; that was the gist of what she was saying."

Prosecutors argued that Rudolph was the aggressor in the shooting and escalated the altercation by introducing a semi-automatic rifle to the situation. Rudolph and his defense team argue that he acted in self-defense as the men threatened and attacked him and his brother.

Rudolph said the situation turned violent when the men showed up and he approached them in his driveway. He testified that one man sucker-punched him and that the other three men then jumped him. He said that Robinson pulled a firearm out of this pocket and one of the men said, "y'all gonna die today."

"That's when I went inside to grab my firearm," Rudolph testified.

He said he fired shots after one of the men pointed a gun at him. Doorbell camera footage shows video of the altercation between Rudolph and Jones and again when the men show up at Rudolph's home. Rudolph is seen in the video running after the men with the gun in his hands. Jurors asked to see the footage during deliberations and ultimately delivered the not-guilty verdicts.

“I knew all along that I did what I had to do to protect me and my brother’s life," Rudolph told reporters after the verdict.

Rudolph, 27, played three seasons as a wide receiver at Florida State from 2014-16. He tallied 153 catches for 2,311 yards and 18 touchdowns in 36 games. He played a single season in the NFL with the New York Giants in 2017, where he tallied 8 catches for 101 yards in seven games.