07/23/2008

Associated Press

The Indiana Court of Appeals has reduced a 31-year-sentence imposed on a former Purdue linebacker who was convicted of attacking two women on campus.

The court set aside one of two criminal confinement counts against 22-year-old Kyle D. Williams on Tuesday, reducing his sentence by six years. The court ruled that the conviction was double jeopardy.

Williams, of Bolingbrook, Ill., was convicted in Tippecanoe Superior Court in April 2007 of one count of attempted rape and two counts each of battery and confinement. The appeals court found Tuesday that the same evidence was used to prove counts of attempted rape and confinement in one of the attacks.

"We reach the conclusion that the record establishes clear evidence to support the jury's conclusion that Williams committed attempted rape ... and battery," Judge Carr Darden wrote in the unanimous, 16-page ruling.

"However, we find a reasonable probability exists that the same evidentiary facts the jury used to establish his commission of these two offenses were also 'used to establish the essential elements of' the third offense - criminal confinement."

Williams wore similar homemade masks in both Nov. 29, 2005 incidents and attacked the victims from behind, according to court records.

He also was sentenced in March to 10 years in prison in Illinois for a 2006 attack in which he choked and punched a woman in Lisle, Ill.

Williams also was sentenced in Indiana to six years in prison after pleading guilty to charges he broke into a teammate's dorm room and stole his laptop computer.

Williams was one of the nation's top high school prospects as a senior and was named a first team All-American by Parade, Rivals.com and Insiders.com, according to the Purdue 2005 football media guide.

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Information from: Journal and Courier, http://www.jconline.com