Devontavious Bryant is led into court
photo by Hollie Webb
The woman who was attacked and raped while jogging near Finley Stadium identified defendant Devontavious Bryant in court Wednesday afternoon, saying he was one of the men who raped her.
She said that when everything happened, she had been jogging downtown early in the morning like she did every day. She said she was carrying an MP3 player and some chewing gum.
She said, "Shortly after I got onto Reggie White Boulevard, I saw a bicycle roll past me." At that point, she said someone grabbed her by her neck.
She told the court she saw two black males, one wearing a yellow hoodie and the one who grabbed her wearing gray.
She said next, they asked her for her phone and money, but she did not have either. When they asked for her MP3 player, she said she handed it over and started to walk away.
However, she said, "The one in the yellow came and grabbed me around the throat with his arm and picked me up off the ground."
The victim said this caused her to pass out. When she woke, she said she was on her back on an embankment with the two young men standing over her.
She said the teen in yellow said he had a knife and said "he was going to break my face." At this point in her testimony, the woman tearfully recounted the rest of her story.
She said the man in gray asked her what she would do for her life. She said he raped her first before giving her to the man in yellow, who also raped her. After that, she said they fled.
After getting her clothes on and struggling up the embankment, the woman said she ran into the road and stopped the first vehicle she saw. This man helped her contact police and waited with her until they arrived.
While she was able to identify Bryant, she said the face of the man wearing gray was covered. According to police, their investigation revealed this man to be Deacon Williams, who entered a plea deal on Friday and got a 10-year sentence.
At the time, Bryant was 18 and Williams was 16.
Defense attorney Joshua Weiss showed her all of the pictures from the police lineup in 2012, but she still picked the picture of Bryant.
Attorney Weiss also asked if it would have helped had the men in the photo lineup all been wearing the yellow jacket that she described in her statement to police. However, she said it would not have changed anything.
He also asked if she had recently seen Bryant's picture while watching or reading the news.
The victim said that she never watched the news anymore and avoided all discussion of that night. She said, "I don't look at it, I don't talk about it...My family knows not to talk to me about it." She said this particular week had been difficult because her husband had seen the story in the news multiple times.
Daniel Francis, a Chattanooga officer who was working in the homicide and major crimes division at the time, was also called in to testify. He said he spoke with the victim that night and later interviewed both Bryant and Williams.
The video of his interview with Bryant was played for the jury. During the interrogation, Officer Francis told Bryant that Williams had told police that Bryant was the one who raped the woman.
Bryant denied any involvement and said he did not know what they were talking about. While he admitted that it was him in a City Cafe surveillance video, he said he went to a friend's house shortly after.
Because of the officer's statements about Williams in the video, attorney Weiss asked for a break and then made a motion for a mistrial. He called the comments "prejudicial" and "hearsay."
However, prosecutor Cameron Williams and district attorney Neal Pinkston objected, saying the comments were not Williams' testimony.
After the victim's testimony, the state rested its case. After the jury left, attorney Weiss made a motion for acquittal.
Earlier Wednesday, an acquaintance of Bryant testified that the phone found at the scene of the crime was the same phone she had let Bryant borrow earlier.
The young woman said she knew both Bryant and Williams but was not close with either.
She testified that Bryant was wearing a yellow hoodie and an "afro wig", matching the description given to police by the victim.
She said when she later saw Bryant, he told her he had lost her phone because he had a "hole in his pocket."
Mark Hamilton, an electronics and forensics employee at the CPD, said on the day of the incident he was sent to retrieve security video footage from City Cafe.
In the video, two young men identified as Williams and Bryant can be seen sitting at a table. The video starts at approximately 4:30 a.m.
Later, the director of security at the Chattanooga Convention Center testified that he had found footage on exterior surveillance cameras depicting the two men on bicycles, following a female jogger.
In one video, the yellow hoodie and the wig can be seen.
Chattanooga police officer Ken Burnett testified about what he found at the crime scene. He said when he arrived, he saw a cell phone with a cracked screen, a condom wrapper, women's underwear and a plastic bag containing chewing gum.
Defense attorney Weiss asked about the weather conditions.
Officer Burnett said, "It wasn't a heavy rain, it was just kind of like a steady rain. Not real hard and not real light." He said he arrived near dawn.
The trial will continue Thursday morning.