A university soccer participant with a historical past of sexual assault raped a 17-year-old woman aboard a Carnival Cruise ship as she was celebrating the vacations together with her household — earlier than heartlessly asking, “You Good?”
James Thomas Kelley, now 22, was discovered responsible of aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse and assault in connection to the incident aboard the Carnival Legend between Jan. 1 and Jan. 2, 2023, the US Lawyer’s Workplace for the District of Maryland mentioned.
The working again for Wingate College had already been convicted of sexual assault as a minor in 2019 — and jurors heard testimony from six individuals accusing him of different sexual assaults, together with when he was already being investigated by the FBI for the cruise rape.
In that case, he “forcibly raped” the teenager after taking her again to his cabin when she wanted a restroom — then pushed her “face first” onto the mattress and raped her, prosecutors mentioned.
However he “noticed that (she) was intoxicated (by his personal admission), realized she was susceptible” and “took full benefit of the scenario,” prosecutors wrote in courtroom paperwork obtained by The State.
“After raping (her), Kelley requested, ‘You good?’” the docs mentioned.
Kelley denied raping the teenager when FBI brokers visited him on the school in April 2023, prosecutors mentioned.
However after the feds arrested him on the college in September 2023 a scholar got here ahead and reported that Kelley had additionally raped her, prosecutors mentioned.
As of November 2023, there was an impressive arrest warrant for Kelley for second-degree forcible rape in reference to that sufferer, in keeping with courtroom paperwork.
Throughout his two-week-long trial, jurors heard testimony from six individuals who accused Kelley of sexually assaulting them on completely different events, together with whereas the FBI was investigating him following the cruise, prosecutors mentioned.
He was additionally convicted as a minor in a 2019 sexual assault case, prosecutors mentioned.
“Kelley has an alarming historical past of allegations of sexual assault from men and women spanning from early 2017 by means of September 2023,” prosecutors wrote in courtroom paperwork.
Kelley faces as much as life in jail within the federal case, in keeping with the US Lawyer’s Workplace.
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