Jury begins deliberations in Everson trial

IOWA CITY - Many sexual assault trials boil down to “he said-she said,” but in the trial of a former University of Iowa football player accused of rape, the woman doesn't remember a thing.

A jury of eight men and four women started deliberations Tuesday afternoon in the third-degree sex abuse trial of Cedric Everson III, 21.

The jury will decide whether they believe prosecutors, who say Everson sexually assaulted an intoxicated woman on Oct. 14, 2007, or Everson's defense attorney, who says the woman was in a “functional blackout” and was still able to give consent.

“Amnesia does not mean helpless,” defense attorney Leon Spies said.

Judge Paul Miller downgraded the charges against Everson Tuesday, throwing out a second-degree sex abuse charge that requires proving that two or more people committed the crime. Miller said the state failed to prove that Everson's teammate, Abe Satterfield, helped him sexually assault the woman.

Third-degree sex abuse is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The jury could choose to convict on lesser charges of assault with intent to commit sex abuse or assault. If convicted of third-degree sex abuse or assault with intent to commit sex abuse, Everson would have to register as a sex offender.

Everson did not testify in the trial and his defense rested Tuesday morning without calling witnesses. The former football player, wearing a black velvet jacket, spoke only a few words when the judge asked if he understood he had the right to testify. “Yes, your honor,” Everson said.

Assistant Johnson County Attorney Anne Lahey said the 18-year-old female swimmer had four to five mixed drinks and other alcohol before she went to an unoccupied dorm room with Satterfield. He forced her to have sex, during which time she passed out because of the trauma, Lahey said.

Later, Everson entered the room and told Satterfield to switch places so Everson could sexually assault the woman, Lahey said.

“Football is, and should be, a team sport. Sexual assault is not,” Lahey said.

Fellow Hawkeye Mike Daniels saw Everson go into the room with condoms, saying he planned to “do what Abe had done,” Lahey said.

The woman, who woke up the next morning naked and covered in her own blood, did not know Everson had been involved until police told her several weeks later.

Spies highlighted testimony from Satterfield, who said the woman was the aggressor. Satterfield admitted moving to the floor when Everson came into the room, but said he didn't know what was happening on the bed and didn't hear anything.

Everson's DNA inside the woman's vagina indicates the sex was “hurried, passionate and without the opportunity to use a condom,” Spies said. “If he was intending to do sexual assault, he would have used a condom.”

GALLERY: Everson trial Tuesday

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