Former Vanderbilt football player Cory Batey was sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday for raping an unconscious woman, weeks after a Stanford student received what many believe was a slap on the wrist for a rape conviction.
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The New York Daily News reports that Batey was convicted in April of aggravated rape, which carries a minimum 15-year sentence. He is one of four players accused of raping a Vanderbilt co-ed in 2013.
Unlike the Stanford rape case, the four players in this instance took pictures of assault with their cellphones, and one of them videotaped the assault and sent footage to friends. In both cases, the woman was unconscious.
The 22-year-old Batey and Brandon Vandenburg were convicted last year but received a new trial because a juror did not reveal that she was a statutory rape victim. Vandenburg was found guilty following a separate trial in June and will be sentenced in September. Brandon Banks and Jaborian “Tip” McKenzie have both pleaded not guilty and are still awaiting trial.
“I hope that if not today, maybe one day you would find it in your heart to forgive me for any damages I may have caused,” Batey said in court, according to The Tennessean, labeling his actions an “unintentional tragedy.”
Judge Monte Watkins said that “it is one of the saddest cases that I have ever encountered,” reports The Tennessean. “All of the defendants in this case basically have life sentences,” he said. They will all have to register as sex offenders forever.
“I couldn’t believe it was my son,” mom Audrey Batey said, according to The Tennessean. “I really couldn’t … because I know how he care about people and I know that wasn't Cory.”
Read the victim’s full statement here.
Read more at the New York Daily News and The Tennesseean.
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