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Brandon Vandenburg sentenced to 17 years in Vanderbilt rape case

Former Vanderbilt football player Brandon Vandenburg, center, listens as his attorneys Randall Reagan, left, and Albert Perez Jr., right, talk at Vandenburg's sentencing hearing Friday, Nov. 4, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn. Vandenberg is scheduled to be sentenced for his role in the rape of an unconscious fellow student in June 2013. Vandenburg earlier this year became the second former player convicted in the assault on his former girlfriend in a campus dormitory. (George Walker IV/The Tennessean via AP, Pool)
Former Vanderbilt football player Brandon Vandenburg, center, listens as his attorneys Randall Reagan, left, and Albert Perez Jr., right, talk at Vandenburg's sentencing hearing Friday, Nov. 4, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn. Vandenberg is scheduled to be sentenced for his role in the rape of an unconscious fellow student in June 2013. Vandenburg earlier this year became the second former player convicted in the assault on his former girlfriend in a campus dormitory. (George Walker IV/The Tennessean via AP, Pool) Former Vanderbilt football player Brandon Vandenburg, center, listens as his attorneys Randall Reagan, left, and Albert Perez Jr., right, talk at Vandenburg's sentencing hearing Friday, Nov. 4, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn. Vandenberg is scheduled to be sentenced for his role in the rape of an unconscious fellow student in June 2013. Vandenburg earlier this year became the second former player convicted in the assault on his former girlfriend in a campus dormitory. (George Walker IV/The Tennessean via AP, Pool)

By Associated Press 3 min read

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A former Vanderbilt football player who encouraged his teammates to rape an unconscious female student was sentenced Friday to 17 years in prison under a law requiring aggravated rape convicts to serve 100 percent of their time behind bars.

After the hearing, prosecutors said they hoped the sentences handed down would send a message that people who commit these types of crimes on campus will be held accountable.

Victims should know that there are people on their side – whether police, prosecutors or judges- Assistant District Attorney Roger Moore said.

“That’s what I would like to see taken away from this – that justice is going to be served,” Moore said.

Surveillance video showed Brandon Vandenburg helping to carry the woman into his dorm room, where testimony showed he handed out condoms to three of his teammates and egged them on. The 23-year-old former player also took cellphone videos of the June 2013 dorm room rape and emailed them to friends in California while the crime was ongoing.