Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
LOGAN — An ex-Utah State University football player pleaded guilty on Wednesday to sexual abuse in connection to a 2018 case in which he was accused of assaulting a woman who was too intoxicated to give consent.
Jamaal Anthony Evans, 23, of Logan, was charged in 1st District Court with rape and forcible sodomy, both first-degree felonies, in June 2018. Evans pleaded guilty Wednesday to a lesser charge of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.
Evans admitted to touching the genitals of another "with intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desires of any individual without the consent of the other," the plea document states.
According to a Cache County Jail report filed at the time of his arrest, a woman had been drinking vodka in a basement at an off-campus party when police say she and Evans went upstairs to get a drink.
The woman's friends started searching the house for her when she and Evans didn't return. One friend heard a shower in an upstairs bedroom turn on and went to investigate. They found vomit on the bed, floor and Evans' shirt, according to court documents. But when they tried to get into the bathroom, it was locked.
"Evans was telling her to give him a minute and she began yelling for (the woman) who was not responding to her," the 2018 police report states. "Evans told her through the door that she did not need to be there and that they were OK."
The friend was finally able to get into the bathroom and found the woman "completely nude" and "hunched over and … completely incoherent," according to the report.
"(The woman) began tearing up and telling her she did not know what was happening."
When confronted about what had happened, Evans "described what occurred as 'when you're in the moment and you want what you want, you just got to do it sometimes,'" investigators wrote in the report. He allegedly stated that the woman was sober and "he gave that girl what she wanted," police said.
A few days after the party, the woman called Evans, told him she didn't know what happened that night because she was not sober, and accused Evans of rape, "to which he responds that she needs to trust him because he is the only person who was there and knows what happened," the report states.
The incident was one of several rape and sexual misconduct allegations levied against Utah State students since 2015.
Evans' sentencing date has not yet been announced.
Most recent Police & Courts stories
Related topics
Cassidy Wixom
