DENVER – A Denver jury on Friday convicted a University of Colorado-Denver student of multiple felonies after he took an unconscious woman from a Halloween party and raped her inside his apartment.
John D. Kennedy, 23, was found guilty of all the charges he faced: second-degree kidnapping—victim of a sexual offense; sexual assault—victim physically helpless; sexual assault—victim incapable of appraising nature of her conduct; and one count of unlawful sexual contact.
Charges were first filed against Kennedy in November 2015, and his trial lasted six days.
He was a student on the CU-Denver Auraria campus and had been at a Halloween part with other students.
The Denver District Attorney’s Office says that Kennedy waited until everyone had cleared a shared hallway at their apartment building, then took the woman—who was inebriated and had been placed there by her friends for her safety—into his apartment across the hall.
He started sexually assaulting her, but a friend discovered that the woman was missing and went into Kennedy’s apartment and confronted him.
She was completely unaware she had ever left the first apartment or that she had been raped, and never gave consent.
Surveillance video showed Kennedy dragging the woman into his apartment, and DNA evidence from a rape kit pointed to Kennedy being the person who kidnapped and assaulted the woman.
Kennedy eventually confessed to the crimes. He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 18.
