WATCH: Stunned ex-Vanderbilt football player reacts to rape conviction

Jury didn’t buy defense that he was “bullied” into gang rape

A former Vanderbilt University football player faces prison time after he was convicted this week of gang raping an unconscious woman several years ago.

A Nashville jury on Friday found 23-year-old Brandon Banks guilty of one count of aggravated rape and another count of sexual battery, WTVF-TV reports.

The convictions stem from Banks’ involvement in a 2013 gang rape of a female student with three of his football teammates.

Banks had asserted that he was afraid he would get beaten up if he didn’t participate in the rape, but prosecutors presented disturbing photos and videos — some of which Banks shot himself — to challenge that claim. The material included a 49-second video of the victim being raped.

Players participating in the rape “were encouraging each other, laughing and smiling,” the television station reported.

Banks involvement included penetrating the 21-year-old victim with a water bottle, touching her, taking photos and leaving her on the floor of a hallway “like a piece of trash laid out for the garbage collectors to pick up,” Assistant District Attorney Roger Moore said during the trial.

Banks’ defense attorney, Mark Scruggs, said his client was “clearly under duress” at the time of the assault.

“He is the classic example of someone who has been abused by a group, whether it be a football team, a fraternity, or any other group nowadays, that requires complete loyalty, complete obedience,” Scruggs said.

Banks was holding back tears as Scruggs spoke during closing arguments Friday, according to the television station.

Two other teammates have already been sentenced in connection with the rape. Brandon Vandenburg was sentenced in June 2016 to 17 years in prison, while Corey Batey was sentenced in April 2016 to a 15-year sentence. The fourth teammate charged, Jaborian McKenzie, agreed to testify against the other teammates with the hope of striking a plea deal with prosecutors.

The victim testified that at the time of the rape, she had been dating Vandenburg but didn’t know the other teammates. The victim further said that she could not remember the assault, but that her last memory on the day it occurred was of Vandenburg giving her a drink at a bar.

The jury deliberated for about 15 hours over the course of two days; in addition to the guilty verdicts, the jury found Banks not guilty on five other counts.

Banks faces at least 15 years in prison.

[Feature Photo: Police Handout]