Ex-USC Football Player Given 11 Years for Beating, Kidnaping

A former USC football player was sentenced to 11 years in state prison Monday for beating a woman friend on two occasions and abducting her to Mexico at gunpoint.

Jeff Maree carried a Bible with him as he appeared before Torrance Superior Court Judge William Hollingsworth. Maree, 25, told the court that he thought the sentence was too severe but that God would see him through his prison term, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Diana Teran.

“I think it was a very, very savage beating,” she said, explaining that she had sought a 14-year sentence.

Maree’s attorney, Howard Beckler, called the sentence too harsh, adding that the victim was not a stranger whom Maree had picked up and assaulted.

But, he said, “the judge thought the situation was so extreme there was nothing that would mitigate it.” Maree had a prior misdemeanor conviction for false imprisonment involving another woman he dated, Beckler said.

Maree pleaded guilty in February to attacking and kidnaping Laura Zovich, 21.

Zovich said she had broken off their relationship several weeks before Maree attacked her inside her car on March 11, 1990. The beating took place as two of the woman’s friends tried to intervene.

After the beating, Maree left to visit his parents in New Jersey but returned to California when he learned that charges had been filed against him. A day after Maree was released on bail May 6, he armed himself with a gun and hid in the trunk of Zovich’s car.

A reserve defensive back for the Trojans from 1985 to 1987, Maree surprised Zovich at the car, punched her in the mouth and forced her into the trunk. He drove a few blocks to a location where he had parked another car and forced her into the trunk of that vehicle.

He drove with Zovich in the trunk to Tijuana, where he ordered her to join him in the front seat of the car. Nearly 21 hours after he abducted her, Zovich persuaded Maree to return to the South Bay and release her.

Zovich contacted police and, after four months on the run, Maree turned himself in.

Zovich, now physically recovered from the beatings that knocked out her front teeth, scarred her legs and smashed her nose, did not appear in court for the sentencing. Through Teran, Zovich said she thought that the sentence was appropriate.