Former Track Star Guilty Of Rape

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 8, 1999 / 8:24 PM EST / CBS Sportsline

Former Ohio State track star Chris Nelloms was found guilty Friday of repeatedly raping a young girl. He faces a life sentence.

Nelloms dropped his head when the verdict from the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court jury was read. His fiancee, Tina Smith, began sobbing from the second row of the courtroom and was escorted out by a friend. The verdict also left Nelloms' mother, Gloria Nelloms, in tears.

"The guilty verdict just took everything out of me," Shelly Brown, Nelloms' sister-in-law, said. "From what I heard in the courtroom, there was no evidence."

A 12-year-old girl accused Nelloms of sexually assaulting her in homes in Dayton and Lexington, Ky., from 1995 to 1997.

Nelloms was convicted of seven counts of rape of a child younger than 13 and one count of felonious sexual penetration of a child under 13. He was found innocent of attempted rape of a child under 13, a charge stemming from an allegation that he attempted to sodomize the girl.

Judge John Kessler revoked Nelloms' bond and ordered him held in jail pending sentencing. Nelloms was led from the courtroom in handcuffs. Prosecutors say a life sentence is mandatory, but Nelloms will be eligible for parole.

"No one can ever be happy in a situation like this," said Angela Frydman, Montgomery County assistant prosecutor. "It is a very sad and tragic day for all of the parties involved. But I believe from the bottom of my heart that it was the only true verdict that could be returned based on the facts and evidence."

Defense lawyer Jon Paul Rion said he plans to appeal.

"We're very disturbed by this verdict. Chris Nelloms is a fine man with an awful lot of potential," Rion said. "Clearly this case came down to who was telling the truth and who was not."

Nelloms, 26, of suburban Trotwood , set school records at Ohio State and tried unsuccessfully to qualify for the 1996 Olympics in the 200-meter dash.

The jury heard four days of testimony and deliberated for five hours over two days before reaching a verdict. The 12-year-old girl testified on the second day of the trial.

"She was very courageous. She was honest. And she was unflappable in her answers," Frydman said. "They were consistent. And despite grueling cross-examination, they remained consistent. And that was because what she was testifying to was true."

Randy Faison is a friend of Nelloms who chairs the political-social-education committee of the Dayton chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He said he believes the case was not thoroughly investigated.

"This is a dark day in this county when we can convict a man on the basis of `he-say, she-say' without the benefit of any evidence," Faison said. "Here is a person that I would trust with my own four daughters."