Stacey Barchenger

sbarchenger@tennessean.com

Four former Vanderbilt football players were charged in the 2013 rape of an unconscious woman.

A jury found Brandon Vandenburg guilty on eight felony counts in the case after trial in June.

For the first time in public, Vandenburg apologized to the victim, whom he was dating at the time.

Nashville Judge Monte Watkins said Vandenburg deserves to spend 17 years in prison for his role.

She wasn’t there to see a Nashville judge on Friday sentence former Vanderbilt University football player Brandon Vandenburg to 17 years in prison.

The woman who was raped more than three years ago in Vandenburg’s dorm could not go to court again. Not after a prior sentencing in the case, in which another ex-football player got the minimum 15-year prison term.

Instead, Assistant District Attorney General Jan Norman read a statement on her behalf.

"Please do not use my absence as an excuse for leniency, as it in no way diminishes the profound and insidious impact of Mr. Vandenburg on me and my life," Norman read.

"I still ask that he receive the full sentence allowed under the law for orchestrating the sustained 30-minute gang rape against me, a defenseless woman who trusted him.

"The minimum sentence is not enough for what this man did to me."

Prosecutors sought the upper end of the 15- to 25-year range of possible prison time for Vandenburg’s convictions of aggravated rape, aggravated sexual battery and unlawful photography. But they did not put an exact number on how much time behind bars they believed was enough.

They argued Vandenburg betrayed the victim’s trust and was a leader in the attack.

Nashville Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins agreed with the state on those two points. And before he handed down the 17-year term, he also noted that 23-year-old Vandenburg had community support and seemed remorseful.

The sentence does not include parole eligibility, meaning Vandenburg must serve all 17 years. He is already on the sex offender registry and will be there for life based on his crimes.

Two family friends and a jailhouse minister took the witness stand in Watkins’ fifth-floor courtroom at the Justice A.A. Birch Building in downtown Nashville. They said they believed Vandenburg was not dangerous and could be rehabilitated after prison. More than 30 letters were sent to the judge in support of Vandenburg, lawyers said.

Shawna Vandenburg, who has attended nearly all of her son's court hearings, did not testify on his behalf. Vandenburg lawyer and family friend Albert Perez Jr. said she would have been too emotional to do so.

"The family's been rocked, he's been rocked," Perez said after the hearing. "It's not a good day. It's all-around bad."

Vandenburg himself, a one-time top football recruit at tight end, echoed that, begging for mercy and asking the victim, whom he formerly dated, for forgiveness.

Towering at 6 feet 6 inches tall, Vandenburg addressed the judge with little emotion, flanked by his lawyers, Perez and Randall Reagan of East Tennessee.

He apologized to the victim publicly for the first time.

But he also said his actions were out of character and he was an inexperienced drinker under the influence of alcohol. He said his actions ruined many lives.

“It seems inadequate to try to explain how this all happened,” he said. “I go over and over this in my mind and try and replay what could have been done to prevent the events of that night.

"I am ashamed of myself that I was so irresponsible with alcohol, which led to something tragic.”

Two separate Nashville juries now have found the California native guilty for his role, for bringing the woman into his dorm in the early morning hours of June 23, 2013, and encouraging the sexual assault.

After the sentencing hearing, prosecutors pledged to sexual assault victims that the legal system is on their side and this case, particularly its three-year lifespan in the court system, is not typical.

“This is not the typical case, but unfortunately it may not be so atypical a crime,” Deputy District Attorney General Roger Moore said. “This should stop. It should never happen. People are responsible for their actions. People will be held accountable for their actions, and that accountability begins every day when a person wakes up.”

Four members of the Commodores football team were charged with aggravated rape and other crimes for what authorities said happened that night.

Two, Brandon E. Banks and Jaborian "Tip" McKenzie, have pleaded not guilty and their cases are pending.

Vandenburg stood trial in January 2015 with another former football player, Cory Batey. Both were found guilty, but Watkins declared a mistrial five months later because a juror did not disclose he was a past victim of sexual assault.

Batey and Vandenburg faced second juries separately. Batey was found guilty and sentenced in July to 15 years in prison, the minimum term allowed under Tennessee law.

Vandenburg was found guilty at trial in June. He has been behind bars in Nashville since.

According to testimony at trial, Vandenburg brought the woman home from a night of drinking at Tin Roof bar on Demonbreun Hill. Outside his dorm, he ran into three teammates.

Vandenburg carried the unconscious woman into the room, where she was placed on the floor like trash and sexually assaulted by at least two of the men, prosecutors said. Vandenburg coached the others, a co-defendant testified, and took photographs and videos of the rape that he sent to two friends in California.

But Vandenburg could not get an erection, McKenzie testified against his former teammate, and watched pornography on his laptop as the attack unfolded.

The woman has testified that she does not remember the rape. She believed what Vandenburg told her: that she’d gotten drunk and he took care of her.

According to testimony, Vandenburg returned to California and hurried to delete evidence, destroying the cellphones belonging to his friends, even throwing one in a lake.

Metro Nashville Police Department detectives, however, dug through the cellphones of other players charged in the case and a laptop belonging to one of the California friends, Joseph D. Quinzio.

That’s how they found the state’s key evidence: the photos and videos.

Prosecutors used the Friday hearing to again suggest Vandenburg used a date-rape drug on the victim, an inference they’ve hoped jurors would make in prior trials though there is no direct evidence that occurred.

Vandenburg’s defense denied Vandenburg had ever tried to use the drug before and said the judge had no proof it happened.

Still the state played an audio recording of Vandenburg’s friend from California, Miles J. Finley, talking to police and prosecutors in November 2013.

Finley and Quinzio received video of the rape on their cellphones. They were charged with tampering with evidence and, for cooperating with authorities, took deals last year. They pleaded guilty to a reduced charge and got a year of probation.

On the recording played for the judge, Finley said Vandenburg changed his story about what happened. And he recalled a prior conversation from their days in high school.

“At the time, I didn’t know anything about date rape,” Finley said. “But I remember a time in high school Brandon tried to use something, a pill of some sort, I’m not sure if it was roofies, but his dad gave it to him and he told him it loosens women up.

“I know Brandon has tried to do it before.”

READ: The Tennessean's complete coverage of the case here.

Reach Stacey Barchenger at 615-726-8968 and on Twitter @sbarchenger.