PANAMA CITY — Two of three college students arrested in connection with a group sexual battery of an incapacitated female spring breaker were arraigned on the charges Tuesday.
Delonte Martistee, 22, and Ryan Calhoun, 22, both have pleaded not guilty following their arrests for what authorities labeled a Spring Break “gang rape” on a crowded beach in broad daylight in March. Both men have been charged with sexual battery by multiple perpetrators, according to court documents.
Martistee declined to comment following Tuesday’s arraignment, and Calhoun could not be reached for comment. A third man, 21-year-old George Davon Kennedy Jr., also has been charged as a principal to sexual battery by multiple perpetrators. He did not respond Tuesday to calls for comment.
The arrests stem from a video taken in March on the beach. Several men are surrounding a young woman who appears to be incapacitated on a beach chair. As she tries to push their hands away from digitally penetrating her, utterances to the effect of “she isn’t going to know” and a comment about “Molly,” the street name for the illegal drug MDMA, can be heard from the men.
The victim did not remember the incident, but she wanted to press charges, BCSO officials reported.
The video was obtained April 2 by police in Troy, Alabama, during an investigation into a shooting in the college town, officials said. Officers discovered the video while searching the phone of a witness to the shooting and contacted BCSO.
Calhoun, a sophomore from Mobile, Alabama, and Martistee, a senior from Bainbridge, Georgia, were arrested in Alabama on April 9 in connection with the incident. Both men were students at Troy University.
In the video, one man can be seen holding the victim’s arm and leg to restrict her movements. She later identified that man as Kennedy, BCSO reported. Since his arrest near Atlanta, officers have reported Kennedy and the woman at one time had been in a romantic relationship, and he accompanied the victim to the beach.
However, Calhoun and Martistee were not acquaintances, she told investigators.
Calhoun and Martistee were arrested on $50,000 bonds. They have been scheduled for a pretrial hearing on June 18. Kennedy, of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, posted a $75,000 bond on April 27 and is scheduled to hear the charges against him June 9.