TEXARKANA, Texas - A man who was acquitted by a Bowie County jury of sexual assault earlier this month is back in custody on the same charge involving a different accuser.
Dreylund Pierre Edwards, 26, was booked into the Bowie County jail Monday on a charge of sexual assault. Bail was set Tuesday at $100,000.
The most recent woman to accuse Edwards came forward after reading news accounts of his acquittal on a sexual assault charge Oct. 2, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The woman Edwards was found not guilty of sexually assaulting earlier this month testified that Edwards forced himself on her following a party at his house on Lambeth Circle in Texarkana, Texas, in August 2018. The woman who came forward after Edwards' trial alleges Edwards sexually assaulted her following a party at the same house on Jan. 31, 2019.
The newest accuser alleges she went to the party with a friend who was dating Edwards' roommate, Hunter Holder. She reported that she has known Edwards for one to two years and that their relationship was a friendship that never involved romance or consensual sexual contact.
The woman alleges Edwards stopped her when she started to leave the night of Jan. 31, 2019, after drinking at the party, and offered to let her sleep on the living room sofa. The woman said she felt comfortable staying in the house "because she trusted them all."
The woman said she was roused from sleep by Edwards, who was kneeling beside the sofa and had his hand in her pants.
Despite struggling against him and telling him "No," Edwards allegedly continued to assault the woman.
The woman reported she immediately left the house once Edwards "finally left her alone."
At the time of the January 2019 alleged assault, Edwards was free on a $40,000 bond in the sexual assault case that ended in acquittal earlier this month.
The second alleged victim reported that she did not immediately report the incident to police because Edwards assaulted her with his hands and mouth and she was unsure of the law. She told investigators that she thought what happened to her was an "isolated incident" until she read a news report this month about Edwards being acquitted.
"(The second alleged victim) advised that she does not want this to happen to anyone else," the affidavit states.
The second alleged victim provided Texarkana, Texas, police with text messages allegedly confirming she told the female friend with whom she went to the party about the alleged assault. The second alleged victim provided texts she sent to Edwards confronting him. Edwards allegedly responded by calling the situation a "misunderstanding" and attempting to intimidate the woman.
Police also recovered text messages between the second alleged victim's female friend and Holder, Edwards' former roommate, discussing the allegations stemming from the night of Jan. 31, 2019. Holder testified on behalf of Edwards at his trial earlier this month.
Holder testified that he and Edwards are lifelong friends and when asked if he had ever known Edwards to "be untoward, be abusive or take advantage" of women, Holder responded, "Never."
The first alleged victim testified she was planning to drive home after socializing with friends at the house Edwards and Holder rented on Lambeth the night of Aug. 22, 2018, but Edwards offered to let her and another woman sleep in his bedroom because they had been drinking. The first alleged victim testified at trial that she was sleeping in Edwards' room when she woke to Edwards pulling down her leggings. She testified that she repeatedly told Edwards to stop but he continued assaulting her.
At trial the first alleged victim testified that she immediately blocked Edwards from all social media and tried at first to forget what happened. She made a report several weeks later to police.
Edwards is being held in the Bowie County jail. If convicted of sexual assault involving the second woman to accuse him, he faces two to 20 years in prison.