CARACAS, Venezuela — Former major league pitcher Ugueth Urbina was sentenced to 14 years in prison for the attempted murder of five workers on his family’s ranch, a local newspaper reported Wednesday.
Urbina, a former pitcher with the Philadelphia Phillies, was also found guilty of illegal deprivation of liberty and violating a prohibition against taking justice into his own hands during a dispute over a gun on Oct. 16, 2005, El Universal reported.
The 31-year-old free agent was accused of joining a group of men in attacking and injuring workers with machetes and pouring gasoline on them at his family’s ranch, located about 25 miles south of Caracas.
Urbina repeatedly has denied involvement with the violence, saying he was sleeping at the time of the attack.
Though things may look hopeless for Urbina, he can take some consolation from the following : at least he wasn’t beaten out for a spot in the Cubs rotation by Wade Miller.