An apology to the Saskatchewan Roughriders, his children, his wife and his many lovers wasn't enough to spare an HIV-positive former Canadian Football League linebacker a prison term for aggravated sexual assault.
Trevis Smith was sentenced Monday to 51/2 years behind bars for knowingly exposing two women to the virus that causes AIDS by having unprotected sex with them and not revealing his condition.
Provincial court Judge Kenn Bellerose added another six months onto the sentence for two bail violations Smith pleaded guilty to earlier in the day, making the sentence an even six years.
"For this, I apologize to this province and to the team that I represented the last seven years," Smith said from the prisoner's box in a barely audible voice before Bellerose made his ruling.
"I also want to apologize to the women that I've been involved with during this time and my wife for just my actions and I ask that she'd forgive me for me committing adultery.
"I just want to say sorry for everything."
But Bellerose didn't waver.
"As far as I'm concerned, Mr. Smith was very deceitful and very dishonest," he said.
"I'm satisfied he displayed, throughout this whole time - from when he learned he had HIV in November of 2003 until the time of his arrest in October 2005 - a very indifferent attitude with respect to the expectations that the law required on his part to basically come clean with respect to his sexual partners."
Smith showed no reaction as the judge ruled. His wife, who had stood behind her husband throughout the entire trial and could be heard crying as he apologized, left court without talking to reporters.
His lawyer, Clemente Monterosso, also refused comment. An appeal of the conviction has already been filed.
Neither of the two victims could be reached from comment, but one of Smith's former girlfriends - whose positive HIV test first raised alarms about the player's behaviour - said she is happy with the sentence.
The woman, who can't be named under a publication ban, sat through the entire trial and cried as Smith offered his apology.
"I just wish it didn't have to come to this," she told The Canadian Press in a telephone interview from her home.
"I don't think that he will even stop with these six years. I hope he does. The part of me that sees the good in people says, 'yes, yes, he is going to learn his lesson,' but the truth is he probably won't."
Smith was found guilty at a trial earlier this month and the Crown had asked Bellerose to put him away for at least 10 years.
During his trial, Smith testified that he didn't have sex with one of the women after he found out about his condition and maintained he told the other woman about his infection, then always used a condom.
But the judge didn't believe him.
In sentencing arguments, prosecutor Bill Burge suggested Smith selfishly lied to the women for his own sexual gratification in a case that ranks "among the worst of the worst."
"This goes beyond recklessness," Burge said. "It's the deliberation that really aggravates this."
Smith didn't even tell one of the women, who is from British Columbia, about his condition when he became aware that she planned to donate a kidney to her ailing father, Burge pointed out.
But Monterosso argued that neither of the woman contracted HIV and he tried to raise doubt about how much the victims had really suffered.
In her victim impact statement, the B.C. woman said she had thoughts of suicide while she was waiting for her test results.
"My life, in the past year and eight months has been an emotional roller coaster full of sadness, fear and pain," she wrote.
But Monterosso noted that the woman didn't seem to have much trouble testifying and would sometimes make eye contact with her friends in the gallery.
"She seemed to have fun on the stand," Monterosso said. "She did not look so traumatized."
Smith, on the other hand, lost his job with the Roughriders because of the case. He no longer has his $90,000 salary or a house, Monterosso said.
"He's lost everything he had."
Bellerose gave Smith credit for the fact that he was a first-time offender.
He also gave him credit for the three months he had spent in jail prior to trial, but that was washed out by the bail violations for which he pleaded guilty.
In one case, Burge told Bellerose that Smith made out with a woman after he had been released on bail on the condition he not be alone with females over 14.
The woman had asked Smith about his arrest and he denied having HIV, Burge said.
In the other case, Burge said Smith had told his bail supervisor that he was going to a house for work, when he was really making plans to meet up with one of his girlfriends.
Because Smith was under what amounted to house arrest at the time, the lie was tantamount to escaping from jail, Burge argued.