Tyreek Hill’s estranged wife, Lakeeta “Keeta” Vaccaro, took the stand Tuesday on the first day of her civil assault and battery trial against the NFL receiver in Florida, testifying for more than three hours about abuse she says he put her through during their marriage.
The trial is part of the couple’s divorce case, and a jury is hearing it. Hill denies all of it.
Vaccaro told the jury the abuse started in January 2024, about two months after they married, during an argument over a postnuptial agreement she said Hill pressured her to sign. She testified that he threatened divorce, tried to pull her wedding ring off her finger, ripped a necklace from her neck, put his hands around her neck, grabbed and twisted her breasts and wrestled her onto a bed. Later that month, after another fight about the same agreement, she said he threw her luggage out of the house and then physically threw her out too.
The moment she called the worst came in July 2024, when she was pregnant with their daughter. Vaccaro testified that Hill tried to punch her in the stomach and that she blocked the blow with her hands. She said he told her he did not want the baby and pulled her hair out that same day. It was one of the few times she became emotional on the stand.
She walked the jury through several other incidents. She said Hill kicked her out of their car on the drive home from an event in May 2024 and tossed her shoe out after her. She said that during a visit to ESPN headquarters, he pulled her hair, broke her sunglasses and cursed at her in a Bristol, Connecticut hotel. In November 2024, she testified, he yelled at her and spit in her face because his pregame outfit was not ready. She also said he once shoved an unlit cigar butt into her mouth, and that in April 2025 he punched her laptop, threw it to the ground and cursed at her.
Text messages shown in court tracked how the relationship kept breaking and resetting. After one incident, Vaccaro wrote that she was done and told him to stop calling. Hill answered that he would go to therapy, and she testified that she gave him another chance. Other texts showed Hill telling her he no longer wanted a divorce.
“How am I going to get myself out of this,” Vaccaro testified.
Hill’s lawyers pushed back during cross examination, questioning why she had not taken more photos of her injuries. One of his attorneys told the court the records “found no signs of abuse.” Hill’s team has called Vaccaro’s lawsuit a shakedown and a smear campaign, and has said he is waiting for his day in court to present his own evidence.
The couple split in April 2025 after a domestic dispute at their Miami home. Police were called, and that case was closed with no charges filed.
The trial lands at an awkward time for Hill’s career. A day before Vaccaro testified, his agent told ESPN that the free agent receiver could sign with a team soon, with a return to the Kansas City Chiefs floated as a possibility. Hill spent six seasons in Kansas City and won Super Bowl LIV there before a serious knee injury ended his most recent season early.
The NFL is still watching. League spokesperson Brian McCarthy told ESPN that Vaccaro’s allegations remain under review under the league’s personal conduct policy.
That review comes with history attached. In 2014, Hill was arrested while playing at Oklahoma State for punching and choking his girlfriend, who was pregnant at the time. He pleaded guilty to domestic assault and battery by strangulation and completed three years of court ordered probation.
The trial continues this week.
