Former Florida safety Tony Joiner was arrested and charged with second-degree murder stemming from the death of his wife.
Joiner, 33, was arrested by police on Saturday, more than three years after Heyzel Obando was found dead in their Fort Myers, Florida, apartment on Valentine's Day in 2016.
Obando's mother, Isabel Martinez, said police asked her to come down to the station Friday to inform her they were arresting her daughter's husband.
"As a mother, I understand the pain his mother is going through," Martinez said, the Fort Myers News-Press. "But as a mother, no one is going to take my pain away. Now that he is arrested, I hope he feels the weight of the law."
According to police, Obando's death looked "suspicious" and was ruled a homicide two months later. However, the case has remained unsolved for three years.
The relationship between Obando and Joiner had flagged police's attention before. Twice Joiner was arrested for assaulting Obando during their marriage, according to court records obtained by the News-Press.
A member of the Gators from 2004-07, Joiner was on the 2006 national championship team under coach Urban Meyer and served as a team captain in 2007.
He's the second Florida player from that class to be arrested on murder charges — Aaron Hernandez was convicted of murder in 2015 and was facing further murder charges before he hanged himself in his prison cell in 2017.
Obando's daughters, now 3 and 6, will be taken care of by Martinez, who was granted guardianship of the girls in 2017.
"I feel so happy in this sense," Martinez said of Joiner's arrest. "This process has not been easy."