Former Stanford swimmer convicted of sexually assaulting unconscious woman on campus

A former Stanford University swimmer was convicted Wednesday of sexually assaulting a woman he met at a fraternity party.

In a Palo Alto courtroom, the jury found Brock Turner, 20, guilty of three felony counts: assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated woman, sexually penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object.

The jury deliberated for just more than a day before reaching a verdict, the San Jose Mercury News reported. Turner faces up to 10 years in prison in the case. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky is scheduled to sentence him on June 2.

Turner, then a freshman, was arrested Jan. 18, 2015, after two men riding bicycles on campus about 1 a.m. spotted him on top of an unconscious woman, according to the police report filed with the criminal complaint.

Turner and the woman, who was not a Stanford student, both attended the same fraternity party that evening.

In an interview with police, the Ohio native said he arrived at the party about 11 p.m. and kissed a few women before hooking up with the woman who was later found unconscious, according to the police report. He couldn’t recall her name, he told police.

The two witnesses said that after he was spotted, Turner rose and fled. The two men said the chased him down and restrained him until police arrived.

A campus police officer found the woman lying on her side behind a dumpster near an on-campus fraternity. Unconscious but breathing, she was taken to a hospital.

Turner was booked in the San Jose Main Jail and released after posting bail. He remains free on bail until is sentencing.

During trial, Turner’s attorney, Mike Armstrong, said his client did not know how drunk the woman was, the Mercury News reported. She had a blood alcohol level of .24 -- three times the legal limit for driving a vehicle -- while Turner had a blood alcohol concentration of twice the legal limit.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Alaleh Kianerci countered that Turner’s pedigree should not distract from his conduct that night.

“He may not look like a rapist, but he is the ... face of campus sexual assault,” Kianerci said, according to the Mercury News’ report.

After being charged, Turner voluntarily withdrew from Stanford, and a university spokeswoman said at the time that he was barred from setting foot on campus.

Santa Clara County Dist. Atty. Jeff Rosen said after the jury’s decision was announced that he hoped the verdict “will clearly reverberate through colleges and high schools anywhere in our society where there may be any doubt about the distinction between consent and sexual assault.”

Rosen added: “No means no. Drunk means no. Passed out means no. And sex without consent means sexual assault.”

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