Baylor’s Sam Ukwuachu convicted of sexual assault
Baylor defensive end Sam Ukwuachu was found guilty of sexual assault Thursday night.
Ukwuachu was convicted of raping a female former Baylor soccer player in October of 2013. The conviction comes on the same day Texas Monthly released a report about how Baylor and police mishandled the allegations against the transfer from Boise State. The jury went to deliberation in the case earlier in the day.
Baylor released a statement following his conviction.
The Texas Monthly report had revealed the following details from court documents.
The two were friendly, and shortly before two in the morning, Ukwuachu texted Doe, who replied to his message by saying that she would call him. During her testimony Tuesday, she said that she had called him moments later and agreed to go with him to get something to eat or to go to another party—but after he picked her up that night, he turned the wrong way out of her apartment complex and drove her to his apartment instead. Doe’s testimony regarding what happened in his apartment is disturbing. She described Ukwuachu as extremely agitated, getting angry with his dog and with a friend on the phone, who was in from out of town. After she resisted his initial advances, Doe testified, he began to grab her. “He was using all of his strength to pull up my dress and do stuff to me,” she said. “He had me on my stomach on the bed, and he was on top of me.” Doe testified that he pulled her dress up, pulled her underwear to the side, and forced her legs open with his toes, her head pressed between his bed and his desk, then forced himself inside of her. Doe was a virgin at the time.
Ukwuachu has not played for Baylor since he transferred from the Broncos. Despite the victim reporting the incident to police the following day, he wasn’t indicted until June of 2014. The university had previously cleared Ukwuachu of any wrongdoing after an internal investigation. That investigation was deemed unsuitable for referencing in court by the judge in the case, however.
Sentencing for Ukwuachu is set to begin on Friday.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
