After almost eight hours of deliberation, a jury on Thursday found Romalace Williams, 21, not guilty of raping a fellow student at Brainerd High School in December 2018.
Williams, 17 at the time of the incident, has previously claimed the encounter was consensual and that he loved the victim. Assistant District Attorney Andrew Coyle said Williams’ story changed over the years. Coyle said Williams claimed he didn’t know the victim, then said that he wasn’t in the school auditorium where the incident is said to have happened, then claimed to have been in the auditorium while saying that “nothing sexual” happened between the two.
Williams’ attorney, Charles Wright, maintained the defendant was a victim of the system and he was not guilty.
Wright also said the victim had sex with Williams willingly and later lied about the encounter.
Hamilton County Court Division I Prosecutor Miriam Johnson rebutted Wright’s statement, saying the victim was 14 and Williams was on the wrestling team and was easily able to overpower her.
“She couldn’t get away,” Johnson said in her closing argument.
During the trial, Williams took the stand in his defense, saying he had only partially told the truth about the incident.
“That’s how love is, I wanted to keep it a secret. I lied to the court,” Williams said while being cross-examined by Coyle, adding that he didn’t remember everything that happened four to five years ago.
During his testimony Williams also said he and the victim were naked on the floor of the school’s auditorium when she said he should stop, and he told her she was bleeding.
“She said I needed to clean up [the blood],” he said, adding that “I did not rape or sexually assault [her].”
In response to Williams’ testimony, Johnson said, “Love isn’t keeping a secret. Love isn’t wiping up evidence and covering it with a box,” adding that, “there’s only one thing [Williams] was right about, he said it wasn’t really sexual assault, and he’s right, it was rape.”
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The prosecution had no comment after the jury found Williams not guilty.
Williams’ defense attorney, however, said he was “elated for my client.”
“He’s gone for over three years and two months waiting to have his day in court, a large part of that was because of the pandemic,” Wright said. “He’s a good guy, he got caught up in this, they had sex, but he didn’t rape anybody. He had this accusation over a period of time, and he finally got it behind him,” adding that the evidence didn’t support the allegations made against Williams.
Contact La Shawn Pagán at lpagan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476. Follow her on Twitter @LaShawnPagan.