WIN. Appeals Court Overturns Former Baylor’s Sex Assault Conviction. ‘Due Process Rights Were Violated By The Use of False Testimony’
Waco’s 10th Court of Appeals reversed Sam Ukwuachu’s 2015 sexual assault conviction on Thursday, ruling prosecutors used “false testimony” and violated the former Baylor University football player’s due process rights. The three-judge intermediate appellate court reversed the case and awarded Ukwuachu a new trial.
“Because we find that Ukwuachu’s due process rights were violated by the use of false testimony, we reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand for a new trial,” the eight-page ruling written by Chief Justice Tom Gray states.
Ukwuachu’s sexual assault case has been bouncing from court to court for years, dating to his arrest after a Baylor homecoming party in 2013, to his conviction for sexual assault in 54th State District Court in 2015, to a 10th Court of Appeals conviction reversal in March 2017 to a reversal of that reversal by the Court of Criminal Appeals in June 2018.
Ukwuachu’s attorneys have argued that texts between his victim and friends were improperly excluded and the criminal court of appeals panel unanimously said in 2018 that there was no grounds to overturn the conviction on that basis. But that court sent the case back to the 10th Court regarding other issues. In its opinion on Thursday, the 10th Court noted issues with phone records from Ukwuachu’s roommate.
“We find that the State’s repeated references to what the cell phone records showed, including the location and time of calls made, without their admission into evidence created a false impression with the jury. Testimony was elicited from both Ukwuachu’s roommate and Ukwuachu’s roommate’s friend while referencing records that were not in evidence and in a manner that indicated that the records definitively showed Ukwuachu’s roommate’s location at certain critical times when they did not.”
“The false testimony relates to Ukwuachu’s roommate’s location and whether phone calls were made around the time of the alleged offense,” the opinion states. “The complaint is that the false testimony was created by the way in which the state made use of his roommate’s cell phone records, which were provided to Ukwuachu on the second day of the trial, but which were excluded from evidence. The court found that there is a “reasonable likelihood that the false impression affected the judgment of the jury.”
William Bratton, Ukwuachu’s appellate attorney, said he and Ukwuachu are pleased with the opinion. “I thought all the points we argued are pretty good points and I am not surprised they reversed this one, too,” Bratton said. “But there are still three more points they haven’t even ruled on, so we will just have to wait to see. But the reversal is the way it should be.”
Ukwuachu sat out the 2013 season because of NCAA transfer rules after transferring from Boise State. He was indicted in 2014, around the same time a lengthy magazine feature detailed the way that Baylor had mishandled the allegation against Ukwuachu. He said he had a consensual sexual encounter with the woman.
