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Ex-Baylor player Ukwuachu's rape conviction overturned, sent back for retrial

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Former Baylor football player Samuel "Sam" Ukwuachu had his sexual assault conviction overturned by the 10th Court of Appeals in Texas, according to KWTX in Waco.

Ukwuachu was convicted on Aug. 21, 2015, but his lawyers appealed the decision, arguing that evidence from cellular records showed time stamps on certain records were not local time and actually six hours earlier.

Part of the three judge panel's order stated;

In six issues, Ukwuachu complains that the trial court erred by allowing the State to reference the cell phone records of his roommate during its cross-examination of his roommate and his roommate's friend, that the indictment was defective, that evidence of an extraneous offense was improperly admitted, that his due process rights were violated due to an abuse of the grand jury process by the State, and that text messages between the victim and a friend of hers the night of the alleged offense were improperly excluded …

Because we find that the trial court erred by disallowing the admission of evidence … we reverse the judgment of conviction and remand this proceeding for a new trial.

The judges determined that a series of text messages between the accuser and a friend sent just before the incident allegedly occurred should have been introduced as evidence, as the messages implied past sexual behavior between Ukwuachu and the woman, according to Paula Lavigne and Mark Schlabach of ESPN.

A Title IX investigation conducted by Baylor earlier found Ukwuachu not responsible for sexually assaulting the woman, a former Baylor woman's soccer player.

The judges overturned the conviction, sending it back for a retrial.

Related: Ex-Baylor TE Tre'Von Armstead arrested for sexual assault

"We're very disappointed to hear the news, mostly because our client has been through so much as it is," the woman's attorney, John Clune said. "But she'll continue to cooperate with whatever the authorities need from her going forward.

"They don't show anything having to do with consent," Clune said of the text messages. "We assume the district attorney's office will appeal this to a higher court."

Ukwuachu was dismissed by Baylor in 2015 over an unspecified violation of team rules. He had transferred to the school from Boise State, where he was also dismissed from the team.

A former girlfriend testified during the August trial that Ukwuachu struck and choked her while at Boise State.

Ukwuachu's case was one of many involving Baylor and its ensuing sexual assault scandal that has rocked the university.

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