Georgia high school football coach faces 30 years for Md. girlfriend’s strangling death

Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy provided the latest update in a press conference Friday on the Atlanta-based former football coach Carl Kearney Jr., 43, who pleaded guilty to the February strangling murder of his girlfriend Patrina Best, 38, in Prince George’s County.

“There is no sentence that would be just in a case like this … this is someone who touched so many lives in a positive way,” Braveboy said, alongside the victim’s parents, Georgina and Pearson Best.

Braveboy announced Kearney faces 30 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Best was a traveling nurse and the two reportedly had an “on and off again relationship.”

On Feb. 17, Kearney told police they had gotten into an argument and he strangled Best until she lost consciousness at her home in Accokeek. She was later pronounced dead by police.

“Someone that Patrina knew, someone who she trusted. He took her life. He strangled her. He killed her,” Braveboy said.

Sentencing is expected to happen in June.

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Grace Newton

Grace Newton is an Associate Producer at WTOP. She also works as an associate producer for NPR Newscast. Grace was born and raised in North Carolina but has lived in D.C. since 2018. Grace graduated from American University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and minor in art history in 2022.

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