COLLEGE STATION — The scene seems straight out of a crime show: A mountain of a man appears from the night, having entered student housing at one of the nation's most prestigious universities, where brainy collegians are hanging out on a weekend.

The muscular hulk targets a victim resting on a lounge couch, pours a can of beer on his head and then punches the unsuspecting prey, a seemingly random attack requiring eight stitches above the eye at a nearby emergency room — all according to a Rice University probable cause statement.

Three witnesses, all Rice students, later identify the alleged perpetrator as Texas A&M senior defensive end Gavin Stansbury, who is 6-foot-4 and 255 pounds, as each collegian separately picks him out of a photo lineup featuring five other men “with similar characteristics,” according to Rice police.

There's only one thing keeping the incident from March 16 as clear cut as it appears: Stansbury vows he hasn't been on the Rice campus in years, although he was listed as staying at a hotel a mere block from Rice at the time of the alleged assault.

Stansbury, 21, is scheduled to appear in a Harris County court Thursday on charges of misdemeanor assault, and according to a person familiar with the case and also the county's justice website, he doesn't appear to have legal representation to this point. An A&M spokesman said Stansbury wasn't reached Friday in terms of whether he had retained a lawyer.

For its part Rice, having turned the case over to the Harris County district attorney's office, declined further comment on the matter. According to the probable cause statement from Rice, one of the witnesses, a Rice student, said she first met the alleged perpetrator while strolling back to student housing from an on-campus party late at night. She said he identified himself as an A&M football player who intended to transfer to Rice in the coming semester.

She then asked him not to follow her into a women's restroom, the statement said. He soon showed up on the fourth floor of the residential area, where students were relaxing around 2:30 a.m. Sunday. After the perpetrator allegedly struck the victim, both men were pulled apart by those on hand, according to the police report.

More than three weeks later, Stansbury was in a car pulled over close to midnight April 10 by College Station police and subsequently arrested on the charges stemming from the incident in Harris County after an officer ran his driver's license. The alleged assault victim and none of the witnesses to the supposed attack returned messages for this story.

Stansbury, who's from Franklin, La., told police he was, indeed, in Houston that night, while serving as a paid intern for the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo. The rodeo's chief operating officer, Leroy Shafer, confirmed Stansbury was a rodeo intern from March 11-16, and that his employees told him Stansbury had been a good worker in the audio-visual department during that time.

Stansbury further told police he hadn't been on the Rice campus in “several years,” and that he and his girlfriend had “traveled to League City to wash clothes and prepare red beans” the night of the assault, and even went to bed in League City around 1 a.m. (an hour and a half prior to the purported assault).

Stansbury added he returned to College Station the night of March 16.

Shafer said while rodeo interns earn minimum wage, they're also offered hotel rooms during their stay, and the primary intern hotel is the Hilton Houston Plaza, located about a block from Rice in the medical center. Deb Dunsford, an A&M senior lecturer and supervisor of Houston rodeo interns, said Stansbury was listed as staying at the hotel that week, but she wasn't certain of his whereabouts that particular Saturday night (and early Sunday morning).

Following his arrest Stansbury, voted the defense's best player last season by his teammates, was immediately suspended from all A&M athletic activities, but has since been reinstated, A&M spokesman Alan Cannon said. Cannon added A&M would not discuss a specific case — hence why Stansbury was so quickly allowed back on the team. A&M did not make Stansbury available for an interview for this story.

Stansbury didn't play in the Aggies' 2013 season opener against Rice after he was one of four A&M defenders receiving a two-game suspension for violating A&M athletic department rules and regulations in the previous offseason.

Stansbury's arrest two weeks ago continued another active offseason for the Aggies on the legal front. Two of his teammates, safety Howard Matthews and receiver Edward Pope, were in the vehicle with him when they were pulled over, and Matthews and Pope were each arrested at the same time as Stansbury for prior failure to appear in court.

Receiver Ricky Seals-Jones recently was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, but his lawyer, Cameron Reynolds of Bryan, said Seals-Jones is fighting the charges. Quarterback Kenny Hill, who's vying for the starting job, recently was arrested on charges of public intoxication. Touted safety Kameron Miles was dismissed from the program in early March for what has been reported as theft.

Defensive tackle Isaiah Golden was arrested in February on a misdemeanor marijuana charge, while fellow sophomore Darian Claiborne, a linebacker, was arrested at the same time for a noise violation (for yelling while the players were being questioned). Claiborne already had been arrested on charges of marijuana possession in December and missed the Aggies' victory over Duke in the Chick-fil-A Bowl on New Year's Eve as a result.

Last year, about half of Sumlin's starting defense was suspended for the Aggies' season-opening victory over the Owls after various transgressions in the previous offseason. Sumlin has responded this offseason to the multiple arrests by claiming the athletic department has measures in place to continually educate A&M student-athletes on trying to stay out of trouble.

bzwerneman@express-news.net

Twitter: @brentzwerneman