Former NFL player Kellen Winslow II reportedly showed no emotion Monday (May 20) during the opening statements of his rape trial. The 35-year-old was said to be stoic when prosecutors said he “took what he wanted” from several women, including a 17-year-old who accused him of rape while he was a student at The University of Miami.
Winslow’s father, a former San Diego Charger, sat inside the Southern California courtroom behind his son as a show of support.
Winslow was arrested in 2018 after authorities found evidence linking him to the break-ins of two elderly women in north San Diego’s Encinitas neighborhood. However, the charges were dismissed by a judge during a preliminary hearing.
After posting bail, Winslow was arrested for allegedly raping two women. On March 17, a 54-year-old hitchhiker said Winslow offered her a ride and when she accepted, he attacked her in the parking lot of a shopping center. The New England Patriots’ tight end supposedly threatened to kill the woman if she screamed, so she remained silent.
“She was too scared to scream,” Owens told jurors.
The woman reported the attack to authorities four days later but refused to be examined. She instead gave investigators Winslow’s blood-stained paints she says he wore. DNA testing found Winslow’s semen on the pants.
Owens said in May of that same year, Winslow befriended a 59-year-old homeless woman and sodomized her.
Winslow’s attorney, Brian Watkins, told that jury that while his client repeatedly cheated on his wife, it doesn’t mean he assaulted the several women accusing him of rape.
“It’s wrong. It’s immoral, but it is not illegal,” Watkins said.
Watkins contends the women who have accused Winslow are preying on him due to the media coverage of his rape allegations.
When Winslow was out on a $2 million bail, a 77-year-old woman accused the former New York Jet of exposing himself to her at a gym twice and masturbated in front of her. He has been held in jail without bail, since.
Winslow pled not guilty to 12 charges, and if found guilty, he could face life in prison.
