Jury headed to third day of deliberations in Matthew Maldonado, Nicholas Schultz rape trial

The two male Lloyd Irvin students involved in the alleged New Years Eve rape of a third, female student have been on trial since October 7. The jury began deliberations after the two week trial on Wednesday, continuing to deliberate through the day on Thursday.

During the case, prosecutors argued that surveillance video footage of the events that transpired showed the victim falling down repeatedly in a parking garage while Matthew Maldonado and Nicholas Schultz held her up and repeatedly raped her. During the opening stages of the case, one of the prosecutors described the victim as a "limp ragdoll" who was left on the concrete like a "used up piece of meat."

In return, the defense claimed that the victim was "into it," never once asking the men to stop or seeking assistance because, again, she was "into it."

With no audio on the surveillance video footage, a 20-30 second clip shot by Maldonado on his cell phone was a key piece of evidence. There were second-hand reports from some in attendance at the trial that the victim could be heard on the cell phone footage saying "stop."

Georgette Oden has been following the case on her blog and had a few different reports from people who attended the trial, including:

"Just wanted to let you know that I was at the trial last week when the victim testified, and she did great. She was polite and answered all of the questions on cross, but she did not let the multiple defense attorneys (who are women, might I add) bully her around. I went with some [name of academy] people.

[I also went with a friend] who is a defense attorney and also a former prosecutor (not associated with this case) and they said [the survivor] "presented very well". Apparently Nick [Shultz] did testify earlier this week, and that same defense attorney friend said that he came off very poorly, so there's that."

As well as this very interesting report based on something that was talked about here at Bloody Elbow previously:

"Defense atty: So, you consider Lloyd to be a friend? you consider him to be someone who was supporting you?

Survivor: Well, I did, until I found out that he was paying for the defense attorneys.'

And from [the defense attorney's] reaction, it was obvious that yeah, he was paying for them."

Bloody Elbow first reported claims from former Irvin students that Lloyd said he paid for Maldonado and Schultz's defense attorneys back in March:

According to a source, Irvin also recently held a meeting with a portion of his team to discuss his prior rape arrest. "There were eight male team members in the room, and he told us the sex was a 'train' and the girl was 'down'... he then said the next day the girl's boyfriend found out about the incident and made her report it as rape." The former student continued, "Lloyd told us he had paid for Matthew Maldonado and Nick Schultz's lawyer retainer when they initially were arrested. And we were given specific instructions to not to tell anyone he did that."

A second source also said that Irvin arranged for Maldonado's and Schultz's defense, stating, "He hired the lawyers. 100% it's a fact. I was there at the meeting, I sat in on it, I heard it. 100%. There's no lies to it, he hired the lawyers."

Bloody Elbow spoke to the sources who provided those stories to Oden to verify the reports. In addition to verifying the reports, one expanded on the defense attorney's reaction to the victim's statement by saying "She just seemed flustered and said 'that's what you think?' And sort of laughed nervously/incredulously."

We'll have more details as they become available and will bring word of the verdict when it is reached.