CFB notebook: Sex offender ruling of ex-Baylor DE Ukwuachu reversed

Former Baylor defensive end Samuel Ukwuachu's status as a convicted sex offender was reinstated when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled on Wednesday that a lower appeals court erred last year when it overturned Ukwuachu's conviction. The reversal was based on text messages not allowed into evidence in his trial. The judges' 9-0 decision stated that the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it did not allow into evidence text messages the woman sent to her friend while she and Ukwuachu were traveling to his apartment on the night of the reported assault. In a concurring opinion, judges wrote the exclusion of the messages was "harmless" to Ukwuachu's case. In March 2017, Waco's 10th Court of Appeals ruled to overturn Ukwuachu's conviction and give him a new trial. The three-judge panel determined that the trial court should have allowed into evidence the series of text messages between the woman and a friend of hers sent immediately before the reported assault in October 2013. They wrote that the text messages concerned past sexual behavior between the woman and Ukwuachu, which he had said indicated her consent to have sex. Ukwuachu's conviction in August 2015 of having sexually assaulted a female Baylor soccer player was the starting point for a series of public revelations about sexual violence at Baylor. Ukwuachu was sentenced to 180 days in jail, 10 years of felony probation and 400 hours of community service, and had to register as a sex offender. McLennan County prosecutors appealed the decision to overturn the conviction to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which agreed in September 2017 to hear that petition. Had the court upheld the lower court's ruling, Ukwuachu would have been entitled to a new trial. The woman, who lost her soccer scholarship at Baylor in the wake of the reported assault, reached a financial settlement with the school in December 2015 and transferred to another university. --In an unrelated incident, a Texas grand jury announced that there is not enough evidence to indict suspended Baylor football players John Arthur and Tre'von Lewis, who were investigated on allegations of sexual assault. The grand jury reviewed information from Baylor's Title IX investigation on the incident, police reports, witness statements and victim interviews, according to a statement released by McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna. In Reyna's statement, he commended the grand jury members for their work, saying: "We agree with and respect their decision." Lewis and Arthur, redshirt freshmen last season, and two other players were suspended from the team in March. On Nov. 17, 2017, two female students at Baylor told police that they were sexually assaulted at University Parks Apartments in Waco, Texas, during the early-morning hours of Nov. 12, according to a police report. The report listed four suspects, whose names and the names of the alleged female victims -- members of Baylor's equestrian team -- were blacked out. The case was submitted to the McLennan County district attorney's office, and as a result of further investigation, the cases against only Arthur and Lewis were presented to the grand jury for review. On March 14, Baylor head coach Matt Rhule announced the suspensions of Arthur, Lewis, redshirt freshman Justin Harris and sophomore Eric Odor, but said one of the suspensions was unrelated to the sexual assault allegations. A Baylor spokesperson said on Wednesday there was no change in the status of Lewis and Arthur, and that there was "no new or additional information to report at this time." --Former Michigan State football players Josh King, Donnie Corley and Demetric Vance, who had been convicted of seduction charges, were sentenced to three years of probation. The three will be required to undergo sexual offender treatment. King, Corley and Vance all maintain that a young woman's claim that they raped her in the bathroom of an on-campus apartment in January 2017 was not true. All three pleaded guilty to felony seduction charges in April in exchange for prosecutors dropping more significant criminal sexual conduct charges. The woman involved submitted a statement to the court that said she agreed to the plea deal for the sake of her mental health. "I became terrified to sleep because of persistent nightmares," the woman said in her statement. "I clenched my jaw so hard in my sleep that I ruined my retainer in well under a year. ... Unfortunately, this plea has allowed all three defendants to avoid admitting what really happened that night. It's heartbreaking to admit that I have zero confidence that a significant level of deterrence will come out of this." The woman told police last year that King pulled her into a bathroom during a party, assaulted her and then invited Corley and Vance into the room, where they forced her to perform oral sex. King, Corley and Vance admitted they seduced the woman, but said the sex they had with the young woman was consensual. --Quarterback Quinten Dormady, who began last season as the starter at Tennessee, has transferred to Houston, where he will be eligible to play this season as a graduate transfer. He announced his decision to transfer to Houston on Instagram last month. Dormady started the first five games for the Volunteers before being knocked out for the season because of a shoulder injury that required surgery. He passed for 925 yards and six touchdowns before being hurt. Dormady, who is from Boerne, Texas, near San Antonio, could compete with junior D'Eriq King for playing time. King, a former wide receiver, started he last four games last season and passed for 1,260 yards with seven touchdowns and two interceptions. The Cougars have two other quarterbacks, redshirt freshman Bryson Smith and 2018 signee Clayton Tune.