Jurors deadlocked Thursday in the trial of three men accused of
raping a UCLA student in 2002 ““ they could not declare a
verdict on some charges and acquitted the defendants on others.
Defendants Chuwan Anthony, Jamar Dawson and DeShawn Stringer
were found not guilty on charges of collectively contributing to
forced rape, oral sex and burglary.
On individual counts of forced rape and forced oral sex the jury
did not reach a decision.
The jury split evenly 6-6 on Stringer’s charge of forced
rape, and the jury cast seven votes guilty to five votes not guilty
on Stringer’s count of forced oral sex.
The jury voted 11 votes not guilty to one vote guilty on Dawson
and Anthony’s charges of forced rape and oral sex.
Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District
Attorney, said her office needs to decide whether to retry the
defendants on the counts where the jury was deadlocked.
According to the prosecution, the defendants entered the
student’s dorm room Dec. 5, 2002 and forced her to have sex
with them.
Throughout the trial, the defense maintained the sex was
consensual.
The three defendants, who attended Carson High School, had been
visiting UCLA on a field trip. They separated from their larger
school group and visited the dorms in De Neve Plaza.
During testimony last week Dawson said one of the reasons they
went up to the dorms was to meet girls.
After entering several rooms and meeting different people the
defendants went to the Fir building where they knocked on the door
of “Jane Doe,” the name the court is using to protect
the woman’s identity.
Stringer entered the room and had sex with the woman after
Dawson and Anthony left. Earlier in the trial the woman testified
she said “no” several times while Stringer forced her
to have sex with him.
After Stringer left the room, Dawson and Anthony entered and had
oral sex and intercourse with the woman ““ sometimes
concurrently.
The woman testified she did not say “no” or fight
back during the sexual encounter with Dawson and Anthony, something
the prosecution attributed to “frozen fright.”
During closing arguments prosecuting attorney Alyson Messenger
asked the jury to think about the encounter in simple terms.
Messenger said it was ridiculous to believe a woman would have
unprotected sex with three men whom she knew for less than 10
minutes.
“An improbable scenario has become a ridiculous
scenario,” Messenger said. “The reason why the sex in
this case was unprotected was “¦ it was against her
will.”
Defense attorneys painted a different picture of the encounter,
maintaining the sex had been consensual and that in some cases the
woman had implied consent.
“If she did not say “˜no,’ how could he
know?” asked Anthony’s attorney, Eugene Matthews, last
week.
Matthews added he doesn’t believe the district attorney
will retry Dawson or Anthony because the vote was so one-sided.
“The jury spoke loud and clear,” Matthews said,
noting the count of 11-1.
Votes on Stringer’s charges were the closest. Stringer
also was convicted on one count of sexual battery ““ for
squeezing the buttocks of another woman he met in the dorms earlier
that day. He faces six months in jail.
Attorneys will return to court June 21 to sentence Stringer and
determine whether the defendants will be retried.
Matthews said he will file a motion at the hearing to dismiss
the charges against his client.
“I feel as if justice has been done,” Matthews
said.
“I’m very happy that Chuwan Anthony has new
opportunities to go forward in life.”