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BRIGHAM CITY — Jurors on Friday will continue to deliberate in the trial for a former USU football player accused of sexually assaulting several women during his time at the Logan campus.
The jury of eight worked late into the evening Thursday, breaking for the night about 8 p.m. following nearly eight hours of deliberation on the rape charges that Torrey Green faces.
Prosecutors argued earlier in the day that it's not just unlikely, but impossible, that six women who don't know each other could make up similar accounts of sexual assault by the same man.
"It's impossible," said Spencer Walsh during closing arguments. "He is guilty. There is no other reasonable conclusion."
Walsh argued that the half-dozen women were each alone with Green for the first time when they were assaulted and have no motive to lie.
But a defense attorney for the onetime NFL prospect emphasized that he was charged only after news reports tied Green's name to the allegations. Delays in the women’s reporting ranged from 133 days to more than 1,000, she told jurors.
"There were only two people present in each of these instances," said attorney Skye Lazaro. "There’s nothing illegal about hooking up with girls. There’s nothing illegal about being on Tinder. And while it’s probably not the right thing to do, there’s nothing illegal about one-night stands. That doesn’t make it rape."
Green, 25, testified this week that four of the sexual encounters between 2013 and 2015 were consensual and two never happened, saying he is known as a charmer and had sex with multiple women during college. He has maintained, however, that he did not rape anyone.
Lazaro argued the defense cherry-picked evidence to build the cases and the women did have reason to falsely accuse him: Either because they were caught by a boyfriend, wanted attention or wanted to cover up an active sex life. And she noted in one allegation, prosecutors originally declined to charge her client.
"You don’t decide, 'We’re gonna get someone, we're going to let him sweat it out,' and then work backward to fill in the gaps," she said.
Prosecutors have stressed the similarities in the cases in the two-week trial, including that five of the women alleged the assault happened at his apartment.
Walsh on Thursday urged jurors not to find Green guilty of any lesser offenses, just the 11 felony charges he faces. The prosecutor noted several points prior to any news articles where the women disclosed they had been raped to family members or others, with two writing about the experiences in a poem and essay the jury has reviewed. The prosecutor also referred to expert testimony that sexual assault victims often do not report the crime to police right away.
The women, he said, have gained nothing from reporting the allegations except for stress, anxiety and nightmares. The majority said Green told them they would enjoy it as he ignored their attempts to resist him.
"There is no explanation," Walsh said. "The guy lied to you."
Originally from Rubidoux, California, Green was signed as a rookie lineman for the Atlanta Falcons following his successful time playing for USU, but was dropped in 2016 after initial rape allegations surfaced
Green faces of five counts of rape, two counts of object rape and one count of aggravated kidnapping, all first-degree felonies; and three counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.
A judge merged the six cases into one trial last year, in large part due to their similarities. Another sexual assault case remains separate, but no trial date has been set.
Correction: An earlier version quoted a prosecutor saying there was no other reasonable confusion. He in fact said there was no other reasonable conclusion.
