Jury Finds Ex-Vanderbilt Football Players Guilty of Rape

Cory Batey and Brandon Vandenburg have been found guilty of all charges relating to the gang rape of a fellow Vanderbilt student in the summer of 2013. A guilty verdict in a rape case. Would you look at that.

To be fair, the case against Vandenburg and Batey was pretty damning. The pair, along with two other ex-football players who have yet to go on trial, were seen on security footage carrying an unconscious woman into a Vanderbilt dorm (Vandenburg is later seen throwing a towel over the security camera). Vandenburg cheered his teammates on and took photos and video with his cell phone as three men had sex with the woman, as well as penetrated her with what’s been chillingly described in news reports of the crime as “random objects.” In the following days, Vandenburg (who, lucky for the criminal justice system, is also a damn idiot) Googled how to erase images from a cell phone’s memory. Batey was filmed raping the girl, and according to The Tennesseean, the recording featured audible laughter from the crime’s participants. On the stand, the victim told the jury that she had no idea what had happened to her that night until she heard about the pictures and the video.

Vandenburg and Batey’s defense teams tried their very best and grasped at the very graspiest of straws. Vandenburg’s attorney said he was too drunk to commit rape, and then claimed that cheerleading a rape isn’t the same as rape. One stab at a defense involved invoking college hookup culture and blaming that old fogie favorite: TV shows . At one point the spelling of the word “quesadilla” was brought up by the prosecution, who cited Batey’s ability to spell it as evidence that it would therefore have been impossible for him to be too drunk to know what he was doing. But nothing stuck, and today, the jury took only a few hours to find both of the men guilty of every charge brought against them. Here’s what they’re both looking at:

Charges against Cory Batey:

Count 1: Guilty of aggravated rape, anal penetration with fingers
Count 2: Guilty of aggravated rape, vaginal penetration with fingers
Count 3: Guilty of aggravated rape, mouth penetration with penis
Count 4: Guilty of attempted aggravated rape, vaginal penetration with penis
Count 5: Guilty of aggravated rape, criminal responsibility for anal penetration with water bottle by Brandon Banks
Count 6: Guilty of aggravated sexual battery, contact with private areas
Count 7: Guilty of aggravated sexual battery, slapping of buttocks

Charges for Brandon Vandenburg:

Count 1: Guilty of aggravated rape, criminal responsibility for Batey’s anal penetration with fingers
Count 2: Guilty of aggravated rape, criminal responsibility for Batey’s vaginal penetration with fingers
Count 3: Guilty of aggravated rape, criminal responsibility for Batey’s mouth penetration with penis
Count 4: Guilty of attempted aggravated rape, criminal responsibility for Batey’s vaginal penetration with penis
Count 5: Guilty of aggravated rape, criminal responsibility for anal penetration with water bottle by Banks
Count 6: Guilty of aggravated sexual battery, criminal responsibility for contact with private areas
Count 7: Guilty of aggravated sexual battery, slapping of buttocks
Count 8: Guilty of tampering with evidence by destruction of condoms after rape
Count 9: Guilty of unlawful photography, by sending images to other men

Two of the other men charged for their involvement in the rape have not yet gone to trial.

Batey and Vandenburg will both be sentenced on March 6th. Here’s hoping the judge goes HAM on them and sentences them to rot in prison, the only punishment anywhere close to fitting this crime.