NEW BOSTON, Texas - The alleged victim of a 2018 sexual assault held her head in her hands and wept as a local defense attorney showed photos of her from social media despite the repeated objections of a prosecutor.
Assistant Public Defender Bart Craytor grilled the woman who reported to Texarkana, Texas, police on Sept. 19, 2018, that she had been sexually assaulted by Dreylund Edwards in the early hours of Aug. 23 following a house party.
Over the objections of Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards, 102nd District Judge Jeff Addison allowed Craytor to show the jury photos of the woman she posted on Facebook in the weeks after the alleged assault.
One photo showed the alleged victim and a female friend dressed in Halloween costumes, another showed her on a hiking trip and others were photos with friends at a batchelorette party.
When Craytor asked the woman if she was able to "go out and have fun" the alleged victim replied that she "tried to, yes."
In response to Craytor asking, "And you're not ashamed of your body are you?" the woman sobbed and asked, "Should I be?"
Craytor pressed the alleged victim as to why she waited several weeks to make a report to law enforcement. On direct questioning by Richards, the woman said she made the report after a former foster mother encouraged her to do so.
Craytor's questioning of the alleged victim about the delay in reporting elicited a tearful answer.
"I never wanted to say anything about it. I was going to go on with my life. I didn't want nobody to know I got raped. I don't even want to know I got raped. I didn't want nobody to see me like this," she said.
The alleged victim, now 21, testified that she and Edwards, now 26, both attended Texarkana College and met through a mutual friend. She said that in the months since they met, she and Edwards had worked out together and that she had attended parties at his home in Texarkana, Texas, many times. She said that she only considered Edwards a friend and never had a romantic or consensual sexual relationship with him.
She told the jury that on the night of Aug. 22, 2018, she and her roommate, Tyler Mitchell, drove in separate cars to the party at Edwards' house on Lambeth Circle. Mitchell said he left around midnight because he had to work early the following morning.
The woman and a close friend of Edwards, Danyelle Crawford, went with Crawford's sister to a Waffle House around midnight. Crawford testified under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Randle Smolarz that neither she nor the alleged victim were in shape to drive but her sister had just gotten off work. After the meal, the trio returned to Edwards' house. Crawford said she was too tired to drive and made herself comfortable in Edwards' bed.
The jury was shown a SnapChat photo of Crawford, looking sleepy, which included the caption, "I stole Drey's bed."
Crawford testified that Edwards came to the room and asked her to leave because he had a friend coming over. The alleged victim said she went into the bedroom and got in Edwards' bed because she believed Crawford was sleeping there too and had just gone to the bathroom.
The alleged victim said she was asleep, on her side, facing the farthest wall, when she woke to Edwards pulling down her leggings. She said she tried pulling them back up and said "no" and "stop" repeatedly before she decided to simply lie still.
"I just wanted to disappear," the alleged victim testified. "I just didn't like him like that. He was supposed to be my friend."
The alleged victim testified that once she felt Edwards had stopped moving, she left and drove herself home.
Crawford told the jury she was on the living room couch when she saw the alleged victim leave Edwards' house before dawn. She testified that she received a SnapChat message from the alleged victim later, but while still at Edwards' home, asking where she had gone. Crawford's response was shown to the jury.
"I was (sleeping in Edwards' room). But he kicked me out because he said he was getting laid," the SnapChat response from Crawford said.
The alleged victim responded with, "Gross."
Crawford testified that Edwards did not use the phrase "getting laid" when he asked her to leave his bedroom though he did tell her he had a friend coming and needed the room.
Mitchell, the alleged victim's roommate, testified that he awoke the next morning "to the front door swinging open and her crying her eyes out."
"She couldn't really form a sentence. Her hair was messed up and her makeup was all runny. I was trying to figure out what was going on. I told her I'd come back from work around lunch so we could talk, it was around 6 or 7 a.m. I had never seen her in this state," Mitchell said.
Mitchell said he encouraged the alleged victim to report the assault.
Texarkana Texas Police Department Detective Tabitha Smith described Edwards' accuser as, "One of the most distraught victims of sexual assault I have ever interviewed."
While Smith testified, the jury watched a video of Smith interviewing Edwards in September 2018. During the interview, Smith asks Edwards if he and the alleged victim are "friends with benefits."
"No absolutely not," Edwards replied.
During the interview, Edwards mentions that the alleged victim was unreachable to him after the party. The alleged victim testified that after the alleged assault, she immediately blocked Edwards from her phone and all social media accounts.
Smith testified that Edwards was evasive during her interview with him. Asked if he had "consensual sex" with the woman, Edwards replied, "I'd rather not answer that question."
Under questioning from Richards, Smith testified, "Typically if someone had consensual sex with someone they're going to tell me right away. This was very unusual."
About 25 minutes into the interview, Edwards told Smith that he and the alleged victim had consensual sex. When Smith asked Edwards about the position they were in, he described it as "awkward."
The state rested Wednesday evening and Craytor called one witness, Edwards' former roommate. The defense is expected to call additional witnesses Thursday.
If found guilty of sexual assault, Edwards faces two to 20 years in prison.