Ex-Vanderbilt football player Brandon Banks gets 15 years for gang rape of unconscious student
Former Vanderbilt University football player Brandon Banks was sentenced to 15 years behind bars on August 18 for his part in the gang rape of a girlfriend of another Vanderbilt football player. In June, Banks was found guilty on two of the seven charges levied against him, aggravated rape and aggravated sexual battery, according to The Tennessean. Banks is one of three former Vanderbilt football players convicted in that rape of an unconscious Vanderbilt student.
Throughout Banks’ trial it was revealed that that two other Vanderbilt football players, Brandon Vandenburg and Cory Batey, were also found guilty of rape and are now both serving lengthy prison sentences. An additional Vanderbilt football player, Jaborian “Tip” McKenzie, is still awaiting trial on rape charges. The rape victim was dating Vandenburg when the rape occurred in June 2013.
Vandenburg and his girlfriend were out having drinks that fateful Saturday night in June 2013. According to court testimony, the last thing the girl remembers is having a drink that Vandenburg gave to her. The next thing she remembered was waking up in a strange room and not knowing where she was.
Police in Nashville “recovered more than 40 images and three videos of the rape, taken on Vandenburg’s, Batey’s and Banks’ cellphones,” according to The Tennessean. Prosecutors argued that those cellphone images depicted Banks penetrating Vandenburg’s unconscious date with a water bottle and touching her vagina. In his closing argument at Banks’ trial, Deputy District Attorney Roger Moore was quoted by The Tennessean as saying, “this man left a fellow human being like a piece of trash. Laid out like garbage.”
The 15 year sentence handed down to Banks yesterday was the minimum sentence he could have received under the law in Tennessee, according to The Bleacher Report. During his trial, Banks admitted to helping carry the unconscious woman into a dorm room where he penetrated her with a water bottle, touched her vagina and took pictures of the other football players raping her. The same judge that sentenced Banks to 15 years in prison yesterday had previously sentenced Vandenburg to 17 years Batey to 15 years behind bars for their participation in raping the unconscious woman.
Written by: Ace News Today Staff
