A jury found former Vanderbilt football player Cory Batey guilty of rape late Friday. The group of nine men and three women reached their verdict in less than three hours.
Batey was charged with one count of aggravated rape, two counts of attempted aggravated rape, facilitation of aggravated rape and three counts of aggravated sexual battery. He was one of four football players to be accused of raping the female student in 2013.
The police were involved in the situation when Vanderbilt contacted them following their discovery of surveillance footage that displayed the players carrying the unconscious victim through the dorm hallway. Vanderbilt’s vice chancellor for public affairs Beth Fortune released the following statement to the Associated Press:
“Our first thoughts are with the victim and the incredible strength she has shown, and continues to show, both throughout the investigation and the legal proceedings. Our heart continues to go out to her as she has endured this retrial. This case has had a lasting impact on us all.”
The verdict comes one year after Batey and teammate Brandon Vandenburg were found guilty of aggravated rape and sexual battery, but the verdicts were thrown out after it was uncovered that the jury foreman was a victim of statutory rape.
The trial was a jarring experience, as pictures and videos of the sexual assault were used as evidence after both were found on the phone of the players.
Batey’s sentencing is set for May 20, while Vandenburg’s retrial will begin June 13 — a medical issue led Judge Monte Watkin to grant the request of Vandenburg’s legal team to split the trial into two proceedings. Because of the splitting of the cases and the mistrial, the woman ultimately will have to testify at least three times. In the proceedings, the Tennessean reports she was asked to identify herself in the pictures and videos her assaulters recorded of the crime. As was uncovered via testimony, one of the players sent evidence of the assault to friends while it was occurring.
At the conclusion of the assault, which lasted 32 minutes, the woman was left partially naked in the hall. Before the incident, she had been dating Vandenburg for roughly two weeks.
Jaborian McKenzie and Brandon E. Banks, the other two players charged, currently have pending cases.