UPDATE: A Taylor County jury acquitted Windsor in August of 2019. Read the full story.
Jacob Windsor was indicted by a Taylor County grand jury on three counts of sexual assault last week related to an incident last fall when he was enrolled as a student.
The event referenced in the indictment took place Aug. 30, 2014, at a party in Taylor County, and criminal charges were filed against Windsor about a month later. The indictment, handed down Feb. 12, means the grand jury decided enough evidence exists to proceed to trial.
Jacob Windsor
According to Abilene police, the victim was at the party when she “became unable to control herself mentally and physically because of an unknown substance she ingested through her drink.” When she woke up, the victim realized she had been sexually assaulted, a claim further supported by a sexual assault nurse examiner, according to police.
According to the complaint, Windsor, who was a junior biology major at the time from Midlothian, was at the party and confirmed the victim was intoxicated at the time. He also confirmed to police he had a sexual encounter with the woman but did not admit to sexual intercourse, police say.
The Optimist does not disclose the names of sexual assault victims without their permission.
The indictment covers three potential violations of state law regarding sexual assault. The first count claims Windsor intentionally and knowingly committed sexual assault against the victim while she was “unconscious or physically unable to resist.” The second count alleges the assault took place when the woman was unaware that the sexual assault was occurring. And the third count claims Windsor impaired the woman’s judgment by administering an unknown substance before sexually assaulting her.
The charge is classified under Texas law as a second degree felony. If convicted, Windsor may face between two and 20 years in state prison and may be fined up to $10,000.
Windsor referred questions to his Abilene attorney, Kenneth G. Leggett, who said the indictment is nothing more than one step in the U.S. legal system.
“An indictment is nothing more than somebody said this is what happened, and this is what we’re going to try and prove,” Leggett said. “An indictment proves nothing. It is not evidence in the case, the jury is instructed not to take it as evidence.”
He said the only necessary element for a grand jury to indict is probable cause, which is a low standard.
As for the three counts for which Windsor was indicted, Leggett said it is an indication the whoever is making the case is not sure what occurred, if anything did in fact occur.
He said the case will “absolutely” go to trial, and the date will be determined by a judge.
Windsor was booked into Taylor County jailed on Sept. 30, 2014, and released the next day on $50,000 bond.
Eric Gumm, registrar, said Windsor is no longer a student at ACU.
As if this is not hard enough on the Windsor family already you have to go and rub it in the face of all his peers. That’s exactly the kind of support that this family needs! Unbelievable, I seriously cannot believe this. He is innocent until proven guilty! Why don’t you start acting like it, instead of condemning him, and just for some icing on the cake you post his jail picture to make him look like a criminal! I find it hard to believe that a Christian newspaper would do this to an Innocent until proven guilty family. What a shame.
First, I want to say that I had to register with WordPress to even leave a comment here. I do not usually insert myself into these kinds of things, but wasn’t sure who to send an email to. With that being said, I read the Editorial Board’s, “Why we report on indictments of students” article and all of the points could have been directly addressed without disclosing the student’s name. I understand that points 1 and 3 would ideally require the specifics of a situation (i.e., an offender’s name), but the particular circumstance that was reported on here does not involve someone who has been proven guilty of the charges.
I am in full support of increasing the awareness of sexual assault at universities, and I appreciate the growing efforts of doing so. I participated in the sexual assault training courses that ACU’s office of Student Life made available, and I am fully mindful of its presence in and around our community. However, I hope that the writers and editors of The Optimist recognize that they have undoubtedly already made this former ACU student a criminal in the eyes of his peers and educators. Say the jury finds this former student not guilty, and you all write of his alleged innocence. Do you think that every person who has read the article of his indictment will catch sight of the new article (in many weeks or months from now) updating all of us on what he actually didn’t do? Who he actually is? Qualities his character actually holds? They probably won’t.
I am a graduate student at ACU, and I have no idea who this former student is. I have never met him, and I have never heard of him. He could be found guilty by the court, in which I would understand and would probably agree with publishing his name in a university article. Still, he could very well be found not guilty. I am disappointed in the unprecedented judgment and lack of appropriateness that has come from The Optimist and members of ACU’s Department of JMC.