L-R: Trent Mays and Ma’Lik Richmond
Two members of the high school football team that is the pride of Steubenville, Ohio, were found guilty on Sunday of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl in a case that bitterly divided the Rust Belt city and led to accusations of a cover-up to protect the community’s athletes.
Steubenville High School students Trent Mays and Ma’Lik Richmond were sentenced to at least a year in juvenile jail for raping a drunk 16 year old girl…after an alcohol-fueled party on August 11, 2012 in a moving car and later in a basement,after which photos and videos of the attack were posted online.
Mays was sentenced to an additional year in jail on a charge of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material, to be served after his rape sentence is completed.
The two teens broke down in tears after the verdict was read and later apologized to the victim and to the community. Both were emotional as they spoke…Richmond struggled at times to talk through his sobs. Richmond’s father, Nathaniel, also asked that the victim’s family “forgive Malik and Trent for the pain they put you through.”
The trial opened last week as a contest between prosecutors determined to show the girl was so drunk she couldn’t have been a willing participant that night, and defense attorneys soliciting testimony from witnesses that would indicate that the girl, though drunk, knew what she was doing.
The teenage girl testified Saturday that she could not recall what happened the night of the attack but remembered waking up naked in a strange house after drinking at a party. The girl said she recalled drinking, leaving the party holding hands with Mays and throwing up later. When she woke up, she said she discovered her phone, earrings, shoes, and underwear were missing.
It wasn’t until she began hearing the chatter on social media and eventually saw a picture of herself just after the incident that she believed she’d been attacked. Had nothing been said, shot or sent, this would’ve been just another night, like sadly so many anywhere in America with a confused girl wondering what really happened.
Source: Yahoo