A former Vanderbilt University football player was found guilty late Saturday of encouraging his teammates to rape an unconscious woman he had been dating and videotaping the attack on his phone.
Brandon Vandenburg, 23, was found guilty on multiple counts of aggravated rape, aggravated sexual battery, and one count of unlawful photography, the Tennessean reports. He could be sentenced to up to 25 years in jail.
This is the second time Vandenburg has been convicted of the attack. Last year Vandenburg and former player Corey Batey were found guilty of raping a 21-year-old student in an on-campus dormitory in 2013. However, the verdicts were thrown out after it was discovered that one juror had been a victim of statutory rape and thus had a conflict of interest in the case.
Four other men were charged in the case, but only two were accused of sexually assaulting the woman, according to Buzzfeed. Batey, one of those men, was found guilty in April.
Two Ex-Vanderbilt Football Players Found Guilty Of RapeSports by CREDIT: AP Photo/The Tennessean, John Partipilo After just three hours of deliberations Tuesday afternoon, a…thinkprogress.orgThe Vandenburg case comes just weeks after a former Stanford swimmer was convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in an alley, and was sentenced to six months in jail, prompting a public outcry over the short sentence. It also adds to the ongoing debate about sexual assaults on college campuses and the conduct of student athletes. This conversation gained increased attention in 2012 after two high school football players in Steubenville, Ohio, were charged with rape after videotaping a sexual assault they perpetrated on an unconscious teenager.
The lives of everyone involved have been ruined, Deputy District Attorney General Tom Thurman said of the Vanderbilt case, ABC News reports. Thurman said he wished the widespread publicity surrounding Vandenburg would send a message.
The defense had maintained that Vandenburg was a newly-arrived recruit to the university and had asked teammates outside the dorm to help him carry the unconscious woman he had been courting into his room as he couldn’t get her into her apartment. Vandenburg’s lawyers said the other players assaulted the woman as soon as they got her in the room.
But prosecutors said Vandenburg betrayed the woman by getting her drunk and encouraging others to violate her. Prosecutors said Vandenberg passed out condoms to the other players, took videos and pictures of the attack, and sent those to friends as it was happening. Prosecutors also said Vandenburg tried to orchestrate a cover-up. Vandenburg’s cellphone showed internet searches in that same time period to learn if police could recover deleted picture messages, according to The Tennessean.
No sentencing date has been set, but Vandenburg’s lawyer said there would be an appeal.