A jury found former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner guilty on Wednesday of sexually assaulting a woman on campus.
Prosecutors had wrapped up closing arguments Tuesday morning. They said the victim — a 23-year-old Palo Alto native and Gunn High School graduate — did not want to have sex with Brock Turner after a fraternity party on Jan. 18, 2015.
Then-freshman Turner was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault against the woman. After his arrest, Turner, who was 19 at the time, withdrew from Stanford.
"Today a Santa Clara County jury gave a verdict, which I hope will clearly reverberate throughout colleges, high schools and everywhere in our country," Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said.
Turner, who is out on bail, could face 10 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 2.
The victim, who graduated from UC Santa Barbara, said she drank about four shot glasses of whisky before leaving for the party, then drank vodka at the fraternity party. The next thing she said she remembered was waking up at Valley Medical Center in San Jose, where a deputy told her she may have been a victim of sexual assault.
A sexual assault response team nurse also testified that during an exam she found the woman had abrasions on her buttocks and internal abrasions in her private region. The nurse also testified she examined Turner, who had abrasions and soil on his arm, hands, ankle and back.
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A Stanford University student testified that, while bicycling on campus, he saw Turner on top of a woman who wasn’t moving. He and another bicyclist pinned Turner to the ground when he tried to run away, the student said.
However, Turner, who pleaded not guilty, took the stand last week and testified that the woman eagerly engaged in sex after dancing with him at the party.
Lisa Lapin, a spokeswoman for Stanford University emailed a statement to NBC Bay Area, which said in part: "We are very proud of our students who saw something that was not right and intervened, and then followed through with the investigation and through the trial."
NBC Bay Area's Ian Cull contributed to this report.
