A Nashville, Tennessee, jury needed just four hours to deem Brandon Vandenburg guilty of orchestrating the 2013 gang rape of a woman he was reportedly dating at the time.
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The jury convicted Vandenburg of five counts of aggravated rape, two counts of aggravated sexual battery, and one count of unlawful photography. He appeared to be weeping as he was taken away.
The verdict comes just weeks after Brock Turner, an ex-Stanford University swimmer, received a light sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster in 2015.
The case gained national attention and sparked discussion about the prevalence of sexual assault on USA college campuses. He said he hoped the widespread publicity surrounding the Vanderbilt case would send a message. Vandenburg’s attorneys argued that he was intoxicated and could not be responsible for what players he did not know did. All four former players were charged, but only two of raping and sexually assaulting the victim. From there, according to the testimony in the trial, he directed his teammates to attack her, provided them with condoms and recorded parts of it.
“All of this doesn’t happen very often”, Assistant District Attorney General Jan Norman said (via the Tennessean) after Saturday’s decision.
Vanderbilt Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs Beth Fortune issued a statement Saturday night, saying:the school’s first thoughts are with the victim, “who has shown incredible strength and fortitude as she has endured another retrial”.
The trial featured graphic videos and photos that were taken from the players’ cell phones.
Dmitry Gorin, a Los Angeles criminal defence lawyer and former prosecutor specializing in sex crimes, told the Associated Press: “It does seem like an extreme disparity, but I would say this”. ‘They make you mad, they make you sad’.
The victim, then a 21-year-old neuroscience student, testified that she had no memory of the event.
She said Vandenburg later told her she had gotten drunk and sick and he took care of her.
Prosecutors suggested in court that she was under the influence of a date-rape drug. Security video shows the other players helping him carry her into the dorm.
Vandenberg and Cory Batey were convicted past year, but the verdicts were tossed because a juror did not reveal he was a victim of statutory rape.
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Corey Lamont Batey, another Vanderbilt football player, was convicted in April. Both he and Vandenburg face a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison for aggravated rape with no possibility of parole.
