(The Tennessean) – The rape happened in a span of 30 minutes. The case has been pending 19 months. The trial took 12 days. The jury deliberations took just a little more than 3 hours.
When the verdicts came in at 4:52 p.m. Tuesday, former Vanderbilt University football players Brandon Vandenburg and Cory Batey were found guilty in the rape of an unconscious woman in a dorm on June 23, 2013. The announcement took less than four minutes.
Batey, whose 21st birthday was Tuesday, did not visibly react. But his family members — his mother and uncles and cousins, who filled two rows of court benches — broke into sobs.
Vandenburg, 21, shook his head after the foreman read: “Count 1, we find Mr. Vandenburg guilty of aggravated rape.” His father, Rob Vandenburg, yelled out into the courtroom, later wiping his eyes with a scarf. “That is terrible,” he said. His grief nearly muted the foreman, who continued reading verdicts. All were guilty.