Witness testimony continued Tuesday morning in the second day of the trial of two former University of Tennessee football players accused of rape.
A.J. Johnson and Michael Williams are accused of raping University of Tennessee student in Johnson's room during a party at Johnson's South Knoxville apartment in November 2014. The men say they're innocent and allege the young woman had had consensual sex with Johnson in the past.
Witness testimony began Monday and continued Tuesday with a friend of the alleged victim.
Yesterday, the attorney for Michael Williams cross-examined Anna Lawn. The attorney for AJ Johnson began his cross-examination today.
Stephen Johnson, who is AJ Johnson's attorney and is not related to AJ, began cross examination by asking Lawn to describe the first part of the weekend she was in town visiting the alleged victim at UT Knoxville.
The defense attorney questioned Lawn about her perception of the situation in AJ Johnson's bedroom as the alleged incident began. Lawn insisted that the alleged victim would have never put her in a situation involving group sex.
She said the alleged victim knew she had a boyfriend at home.
Lawn told the attorney the alleged victim said "it's okay" to her during the sexual acts and that she was implying the men wouldn't get violent if they agreed to do what they wanted.
Lawn said she wasn't paying attention to what was going on with her friend and she was just happy to get out of the room.
Defense continued to ask Lawn to describe various aspects of the apartment, including walls, windows, lighting, and more.
Lawn continued to testify after lunch Tuesday. The defense attorney no longer allowed her to elaborate and preferred she specifically answered the questions.
The defense attorney asked several questions about the 911 call and who said what. Lawn asked to listen to the call to try to verify. The courtroom could not hear the call because Lawn used headphones to listen. She identified her voice and referenced a rape kit on the 911 call.
The defense attorney said Lawn did not back up her iMessage conversations. She testified that her phone was "acting wonky" and because of the difficulty of back up messages to a family plan, she did not back it up.
The defense finished questioning Lawn around 2 p.m. However, a prosecution lawyer asked on a redirect if Lawn and the alleged victim discussed getting rid of their phones together. Lawn said no.
After Lawn's testimony, the state submitted phone records of Butch Jones into testimony. The state called former Vols football player Drae Bowles to the stand.
Bowles testified about the pressures of playing as a Vols football player. He said he saw the alleged victim after the party on the side of the road and she was crying. He said she told him that Johnson and Williams raped her.
The 911 calls were entered into evidence and played in the courtroom around 2:35 p.m.
The alleged victim says "I got raped by two people".
The alleged victim could be heard on the call crying pretty heavily. Lawn is heard taking over the call telling the alleged victim to share Johnson and Williams's names.
Bowles said a different football player hit him and he hit him back. He said the following afternoon the other player said: "What are you doing to hurt AJ's career?".
Bowles testified that he then called Butch Jones to tell him what had happened the night before. The defense attorney objected to hearsay.
After a brief break, the court was back in session and defense attorney Johnson began the cross examination of Bowles.
The defense claimed Bowles gave an interview to a KPD investigator following the incident in which he said everyone was treating him alright and he was back on the team.
Williams' attorney performed his cross examination. Bowles said the girls were 'drunk that night' at first. When the state asked again, he said the alleged victim was ''slurring her words' while crying and hyperventilating.
The prosecution called their next witness, Ricardo Leal. Leal works for Sprint as a records custodian -- explaining how phone calls are logged by the phone company and whether text messages are recorded the same way.
WBIR Reporter Cole Sullivan is tweeting live updates from the courtroom here: