A former Lawrence Central High School student convicted of raping a fellow student will remain in prison.
LAWRENCE, Ind. (WTHR) - A former Lawrence Central High School student convicted of raping a fellow student will remain in prison.
Judges on the Indiana Court of Appeals rejected Jabril Scruggs' request to overturn his conviction.
Scruggs is serving time in in prison for attacking a female classmate in March 2014 during school hours. Last year, jurors convicted him of rape and criminal confinement. Scruggs was sentenced to ten years in prison, with four of those years served instead on probation. The court also ruled that Scruggs must be listed for ten years on the sex offender registry.
Scruggs appealed his conviction, claiming that the evidence was not sufficient to convict him and that the court improperly excluded a defense witness.
The appeals court judges disagreed and ruled there was ample evidence that Scruggs raped the other student. The judges say the victim's testimony was clear that she did not consent. They also cited the amount of physical evidence, including DNA and injuries to the victim, video surveillance and witness testimony that supported the victims account of events.
Scruggs also claimed that the trial court should have allowed a defense witness to testify, even though the witness was disclosed to the prosecution on the day the trial started. The trial court excluded the witness, largely because the state would not have had time to talk to the witness and check in to what he said. Another reason the trial court gave for excluding the witness was that much of the testimony was expected to be inadmissible because it was about a conversation the witness said he overheard. The appeals court ruled that any error excluding the testimony was a "harmless error."
Scruggs is also facing another criminal case. He is scheduled to go on trial in May for the July 2013 murder of James Johnson, 16, on the playground at the Hawthorne Place Apartments.
