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Former UNH football player found not guilty on sex assault charges
DOVER - A jury found former University of New Hampshire football player JeRome Wilkins not guilty of aggravated sexual assault Monday.
The 10 jurors had listened to a full week of testimony, including accounts from both Wilkins, 21, and the woman who accused him of the crime.
Strafford County Attorney Tom Velardi said he was proud of the woman for seeing the case through, and said she has always been strong in her conviction that the sex that occurred between her and Wilkins that night was not consensual.
Wilkins and the woman knew each other, but Velardi said she was never able to positively identify him as the man she had sex with outside a football party at 10 Coe Drive the night of July 30, 2010.
DNA evidence from a rape kit later linked Wilkins to the woman sexually. He admitted to having sex with her that night, but said it was consensual.
The jury agreed there was not enough evidence to convict him of having sex with the woman without her consent, despite serious injuries the woman suffered.
“Cases off the college campus are particularly difficult because they often involve the use of alcohol on both sides,” Velardi said.
Wilkins was removed from the football team and “administratively separated” from the university in the fall as a result of the felony-level charges.
Monday night, UNH Media Relations Director Erika Mantz said Wilkins is eligible to reapply to the university and can request to be reinstated on the football team after he is a student.
Velardi said prosecutors around the state are routinely criticized for under-prosecuting these types of cases, but said his office is committed to pursuing charges against any rape suspect if the facts back up the complaint.
He said he had to give credit to his “adversary” in the Wilkins case, public defender Joachim Barth.
“He drew out all sides of the issue for the jury,” Velardi said.
The 10 jurors had listened to a full week of testimony, including accounts from both Wilkins, 21, and the woman who accused him of the crime.
Strafford County Attorney Tom Velardi said he was proud of the woman for seeing the case through, and said she has always been strong in her conviction that the sex that occurred between her and Wilkins that night was not consensual.
Wilkins and the woman knew each other, but Velardi said she was never able to positively identify him as the man she had sex with outside a football party at 10 Coe Drive the night of July 30, 2010.
DNA evidence from a rape kit later linked Wilkins to the woman sexually. He admitted to having sex with her that night, but said it was consensual.
The jury agreed there was not enough evidence to convict him of having sex with the woman without her consent, despite serious injuries the woman suffered.
“Cases off the college campus are particularly difficult because they often involve the use of alcohol on both sides,” Velardi said.
Wilkins was removed from the football team and “administratively separated” from the university in the fall as a result of the felony-level charges.
Monday night, UNH Media Relations Director Erika Mantz said Wilkins is eligible to reapply to the university and can request to be reinstated on the football team after he is a student.
Velardi said prosecutors around the state are routinely criticized for under-prosecuting these types of cases, but said his office is committed to pursuing charges against any rape suspect if the facts back up the complaint.
He said he had to give credit to his “adversary” in the Wilkins case, public defender Joachim Barth.
“He drew out all sides of the issue for the jury,” Velardi said.
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