A Utah State University football player has been charged with rape and sodomy after a party in Logan.
A police affidavit says the suspect, Jamaal A. Evans, 19, described the encounter as consensual. He denied he saw signs that the alleged victim was intoxicated, though multiple witnesses described the woman as drunk.
Evans was charged Thursday in Utah’s 1st District Court. Both counts, rape and forcible sodomy, are first-degree felonies that carry the possibility of up to life in prison. Bail was set at $25,000. Evans was released from the jail after posting a bond. He is scheduled to appear in court in Logan on July 10.
Evans, the alleged victim and other students and athletes from USU were at a party in Logan that spanned the night of June 17 and 18, the police affidavit says.
A friend of the woman later told police she couldn’t find her friend during the party. Then, the friend told police, she discovered vomit in a bedroom and heard a shower turn on in the bathroom. Evans was in the bathroom with the woman, the friend told police, but wouldn’t let the friend in to check on the woman. Evans told the friend everything was OK, according to the police affidavit.
Evans eventually opened the door and the friend found the woman sitting nude on the toilet and “completely incoherent,” according to a description quoted in the police affidavit.
According to the statement the woman gave police, Evans then described what occurred as: “When [you’re] in the moment and you want what you want, you just got to do it sometimes.”
The woman told police she remembered being at the party, that Evans was there, and that she drank vodka. The next thing she remembers, according to the police affidavit, is waking up in the shower.
Police later had the woman call Evans and listened while the pair discussed what had happened at the party. The woman said she had not been sober and Evans, according to police, responded, “’yeah I know but I was in the same place you are.’”
Later in the call, the affidavit says, Evans said the woman did not seem drunk. Other witnesses described to police that it was obvious she was intoxicated.
When police interviewed Evans, the affidavit says, he said he and the woman had been sitting on a bed, talking and then began kissing and then had sex. He again said he did not see signs of impairment in the woman, though he acknowledged she vomited.
Evans said he had four shots of vodka and smoked marijuana at the party, the affidavit says, but said he wasn’t drunk during the sex.
Evans is from Las Vegas and has yet to play in game for the Aggies. He is listed as a freshman linebacker on the roster.
