McAlester News-Capital, McAlester, OK

State news

July 24, 2012

OSU basketball player serves 1st day in jail

By TIM TALLEY Associated Press

STILLWATER, Okla. — Despite his emotional outburst in court, suspended Oklahoma State basketball player Darrell Williams was calm when taken to jail after jurors found him guilty on charges that accused him of sexually assaulting two women, authorities said Tuesday.

Williams wept and loudly proclaimed his innocence when jurors convicted him Monday night of two counts of rape by instrumentation and one count of sexual battery following a two-week trial. Payne County sheriff’s Capt. Kevin Woodward said the 22-year-old had calmed down before he was booked into jail.

“He was perfectly fine,” Woodward said. “I let him kiss his sister.”

Defense attorney Cheryl Ramsey said Tuesday that she plans to challenge the convictions. If upheld, she noted, Williams would have to register as a sex offender under state law, possibly for the rest of his life.

Prosecutors accused Williams of groping two women and reaching inside their pants without their consent at a party in December 2010. Jurors recommended that Williams serve a year in prison on each of the rape by instrumentation counts — the minimum sentence — and recommended no prison time on the sexual battery conviction. Formal sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 24.

Live video from the jail showed Williams standing alone in a holding cell Tuesday, dressed in a jail-issued orange jumpsuit and draped in a gray blanket. He occasionally bowed his head and looked through a small window in the cell door at activity in a hallway outside.

Assistant District Attorney Jill Tontz, who argued the case at trial, said the verdicts have wider meaning for the role of student-athletes.

“I hope this sheds a light that our athletes are representative and role models for the community and the university,” Tontz said Tuesday.

OSU spokeswoman Carrie Hulsey-Greene said the university will decline comment until Williams is formally sentenced.

Williams was suspended from the basketball team in February 2011. Before that, he led the team in rebounding and averaged 7.1 points per game.

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