Jonathan Boland’s father wailed and his grandmother sobbed as the 20-year-old former Portland State University football player was led out of a Multnomah County courtroom in handcuffs Monday for his role in robbing three convenience stores at gunpoint.

Several relatives called out words of support: “We love you Jon!” “Be strong, have courage!” “We know who you are!”

Boland had a bright future. He was a star Parkrose High School quarterback, had received a full-ride scholarship to Portland State and had aspirations to play in the NFL.

But a series of concussions forced him to quit football forever, he fell into a deep depression and started abusing alcohol, Xanax and marijuana, his father said. He then robbed the convenience stores with two friends last fall.

Now he's headed to prison for 7 1/2 years.

At his sentencing hearing, Boland told Circuit Judge Michael Greenlick how getting struck in the head repeatedly crushed his dreams and affected his health. He said he has a cyst in his brain, has trouble concentrating and can't see well out of the side of his left eye.

He turned to drugs and alcohol as an escape, he said. “These were the things that were making me happy,” he said.

Boland is the last of three defendants to be sentenced for robbing a string of stores on consecutive days last October: the Duniway Market at 2417 S.E. Fifth Ave., the Plaid Pantry at 14090 N.E. Sandy Blvd. and the Plaid Pantry at 10255 N.E. Glisan St.

Last week, Boland’s co-defendants -- Saadiq Calhoun and Emma Ogden -- were sentenced to 7 1/2 years and nearly six years respectively. Calhoun and Ogden were dating, investigators say.

All three defendants were 19 at the time of the heists. None of them had criminal histories. And all of them, until the months leading up to the robberies, had attended college -- Boland at PSU, Calhoun at Southern Oregon University and Ogden at Oregon State University.

It’s unclear how Boland, Calhoun and Ogden met, but court papers say they all started using Xanax. Boland and Calhoun also shared a love of football, both having played for school teams.

According to prosecutors, Boland planned the robberies and posed as a customer or acted as a lookout. Calhoun held the gun and committed robberies. Ogden was involved in at least two of the three robberies, by posing as a customer and driving the getaway car.

All of the victims were deeply shaken, said Deputy District Attorney Tara Gardner. One of them told authorities that he was terrified by having a gun pointed at him and feared for his life.

Boland and Ogden didn’t wear masks, and Boland’s unmasked face was visible on surveillance video in all three robberies. One of the stores they targeted was just blocks away from Boland’s home and he had frequented it as a customer in the past.

The three were caught a few weeks after the robberies when Boland agreed to a FOX 12 TV interview to talk about the end of his football career and a police officer working the case recognized him from one of the surveillance tapes, said Boland’s father, James Boland.

Jonathan Boland told the judge that his lengthy prison sentence is tough to stomach.

“Seven years in prison, that sucks,” he said.

But he said accepts it and will try to make things right. He said after his arrest and release from jail, he attended drug and alcohol treatment, even though staff members told him that they didn’t think he had an underlying addiction problem.

The judge told Boland that he thought he could turn around his life -- especially with all of the support he has from the community and his relatives.

“Mr. Boland, you are only 20 years old, and ... 90 months of your life seems like a lot. It feels like a lifetime for you,” Greenlick said.

“What brought you into doing crimes probably had a lot to do with medical issues that you were dealing with, and I feel like you are going to figure this out,” the judge said. “I think a lot of really positive things are going to come with you.”

But Greenlick's words couldn't take away the family's pain.

After the sentencing, they stood in the hall in silence, a look of grief on their faces.

"It's like a funeral," said Renee Boland, his mother. "On a spiritual level, he has to die, so he can be reborn again and come out a new creature."

His father said Boland's string of robberies was completely out of character.

His son confessed everything to him, James Boland said: the two-week vodka, Xanax and marijuana spree; stealing drugs from a drug dealer's house and later being confronted and narrowly escaping with his life; and robbing the stores.

"He said, 'I need Jesus, I need Jesus,'" James Boland said.

-- Aimee Green