Brandon Banks was best known for his talents on the football field, abilities that led him to join the Vanderbilt program on scholarship. Now, though, he will forever be known as a convicted felon, as Banks was sentenced to 15 years in prison for rape after a gang rape incident back in 2013 that involved an unconscious female student.
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The judge in the case handed down the minimum sentence after a June conviction of "aggravated rape and aggravated sexual battery." While the victim did not appear at the trial after several court proceedings, the district attorney in the case read the following statement on her behalf, via the Tennessean.
"Most of the horrible recollections that I live with are of Mr. Banks. His attempts to minimize the things he did in surveillance and cellphone recordings after the fact do not change what I have seen and what four juries have seen. Four years later he is still proving himself to be the person he is in those photos and videos. I ask this court not to use his transparent attempts to excuse himself as justification for leniency."
Banks was not the only ex-Vanderbilt athlete committed in the crime, as there are two lengthy sentences already handed down with a fourth ex-player soon to be tried in the same case. During his trial, Banks claimed that he was coerced into the act, though he denied the rape allegations while admitting to being present for the act.
