Prosecutors argued against a bond reduction last month for the 17-year-old accused in the rape of Louisiana State University sophomore Madison Brooks last January, showing video snippets in court they say show the rape.
Brooks, 19, was struck by a car and killed after the incident, when the four men — who met her at a bar where all but one were drinking below the legal age of 21 — let her out of their car, as CrimeOnline reported.
In one snippet played during the hearing, then-18-year-old Casen Carver looks into his own cell phone camera and says, “They finna rape her,” The Advocate reported.
Carver was the driver of the car. Brooks met him and the other three at the Tigerland bar — which has since been shut down because of selling alcohol to underage drinkers — and asked them for a ride because, she reportedly said, she was too drunk and couldn’t find her friends.
Rosalind Freeman, attorney for Desmond Carter, who was 17 at the time, was seeking to lower his bond from $150,000 to $75,000 at the August 31 bond hearing. Another video shown to the court showed a man and a woman having sex in the back seat; a detective testified that it was Carter and Brooks and that other videos showed them more clearly.
In one video, Brooks is heard yelling “Get off” over the sound of loud music blaring and some of the men cheering.
Carver and Carter were both indicted on charges of first- and third-degree rape. Kaiven Deondre Washington, 19 — who was in the back seat with Carter and Brooks — was indicted for aggravated first-degree rape and video voyeurism. Everett Lee, 28, was initially charged with third degree rape but has not been indicted.
None of the videos or images shown in court can be shown outside the courtroom following leaks earlier this year and court order barring attorneys from providing information outside the court. Defense attorneys have claimed that the sex was “absolutely” consensual.
District Judge Gail Horne Ray ultimately agreed to lower Carter’s bond to $100,000. She also gave him a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and ordered him to wear a GPS monitor, not possess any firearms, and not leave the court’s jurisdiction. Online records do not indicate that he has paid the bond and been released.
The others have all been released on bond.
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[Featured image: Madison Brooks/handout]
