The victim of an alleged sexual assault from 2014 testified Tuesday in the jury trial of Jordan Christopher Kelly, charged with one count of rape.
Judge Marc Kellams said he hopes the jury will begin deliberations Wednesday and come to a decision after all the witnesses testify and attorneys give their final arguments instead of continuing Thursday or beyond if possible.
The alleged incident began Nov. 1, 2014, when both Kelly and alleged victim were in Bloomington to attend Halloween parties with friends. At the time, both were college students, but neither attended IU-Bloomington. Kelly was a student at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, and the woman was a student at Bellarmine University.
The alleged victim, then 19, was staying with friends in Spruce Residence Hall the night of Nov. 1. The group drank alcohol, wore costumes and attended three parties.
She said the third party was thrown by members of the IU Ski and Snowboard Club at a house just north of Collins LLC.
The woman said she met Kelly at the party and thought he was cute. They talked and kissed inside the party.
In court Tuesday, the woman said she drank too much that night. On the defense attorney’s scale of one to 10, one being sober and 10 being alcohol poisoning, she thinks she was at about a 7 or 8.
She said Kelly led her outside later in the night and proceeded to grope and rape her. She said she kept saying “no” and trying to push him away, but eventually he was on top of her and covered her mouth.
When her friends found her and went back to the dorms in the early hours of the morning of Nov. 2, she told them she was raped, she said. They then took her to the hospital, but were told they would have to wait a few hours. The group went back to the dorms and returned to the hospital the next morning, where the alleged victim completed a sexual assault examination and talked to Bloomington police officers.
Bloomington Police Department detective Sgt. Jason Shaevitz and two Indiana State Police forensics scientists also testified Tuesday.
Samples from the woman’s exam and a swab of Kelly’s DNA taken by Shaevitz were sent to the Indiana State Police forensics lab in Indianapolis. Kelly’s DNA was found on swabs from the alleged victim’s upper lip. There was also a mixture of at least four different males’ DNA found on a sample from her neck, but there was not enough male DNA found from any other samples, including from her genitalia, to be tested.
Five more witnesses, including the nurse who examined the alleged victim, are scheduled to testify Wednesday.
