A 19-year-old died after she was allegedly gang raped by three men in the backseat of a car. Cheerleader Madison Brooks, a Louisiana State University student, was allegedly dumped out of the vehicle before stumbling across a road where she was hit and killed by a lorry.
The trial of Desmond Carter, 21, one of the men who allegedly assaulted Brooks in 2023, is set to begin with the hearing scheduled for August 17. Mr Carter has been charged with rape along with Kaivon Washington and Casen Carver.
The men are alleged to have assaulted Miss Brooks in a car after they drank together at a bar. The men deny rape, insisting the sex was consensual.
Authorities in the United States said the Miss Brooks’ blood-alcohol level was .319%, which is almost four times the legal driving limit in the US.
She walked into the four-lane road where she was hit by the lorry, the Mirror US reports.
Legal representatives for Mr Carver and Mr Carter argue that injuries found on Miss Brooks’s body were not their clients’ doing, court documents show.
The defendants’ lawyers claimed Miss Brooks had consensual sex with another LSU student the night before and this caused her injuries.
A motion claimed the evidence “will gut the State’s theory of the case” and prove the defendants’ innocence.
District Attorney Hillar Moore said the motion was “totally inappropriate and not in accordance with the applicable rules of law”.
The motion was later rejected by a judge, who ruled it was “irrelevant”.
Miss Brooks’s family and their supporters have worn pink to commemorate her at public events and court hearings.
Mr Carter’s lawyers have filed a motion to ban the wearing of the teen’s favourite colour in the courtroom, arguing it could intimidate the jury.