Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Judge orders Parker Kingston to stand trial for rape following a preliminary hearing.
- Kingston is accused of raping a woman on Feb. 23, 2025.
- The judge set a trial date for May 26; Kingston, a former BYU player, pleaded not guilty.
ST. GEORGE — A judge ordered Parker Kingston, a former BYU wide receiver, to stand trial for rape, a first-degree felony, following a preliminary hearing Thursday.
Fifth District Judge Jay Winward bound him over for trial, but said there was "conflicting credible" evidence presented by the defense.
Prosecutors presented text messages between Kingston and a friend that were sent before the incident and shortly afterward. Among those messages was one in which Kingston indicated he had just had sexual intercourse with the alleged victim, St. George police detective Cody Layton testified.
He said much of the communication between Kingston, 22, and the woman was done through the Snapchat app, and those messages were not able to be recovered. The only messages recovered were from Kingston's phone.
The alleged victim, 20, called police on Feb. 27, four days after Kingston had gone to her house, to report that she had been raped. She did not testify during Thursday's hearing but the defense played a video of her interview with police. She told investigators that she had "consented" to sex acts and the two engaged in "everything but sex." But after she said Kingston raped her, she felt like it was "mission accomplished" for him.
The woman told investigators the two met over social media. Leading up to that evening, she said she told Kingston they were "not going to have sex." She described watching a movie at her apartment and kissing, but said they did "nothing crazy." She said Kingston fell asleep, but when he woke up there was a "weird switch" followed by "heavy making out." She said that he laid on top of her and she tried to get him off of her in many different ways.
"I said no three or four times. I felt like the room stood still," she told police in the video.
Layton testified about the woman's initial phone call to police. He also described another phone call made on March 21, when the woman asked police not to move forward with the case against Kingston.
During cross examination of Layton, the defense brought up a newspaper article about former BYU football player Jake Retzlaff who was accused of sexual assault last year. Defense attorney Cara Tangaro asked the detective if he was aware of reports that the accuser in that case described a similar experience of watching a movie together, with Retzlaff falling asleep and then him waking up and allegedly acting in a more aggressive way. The detective said he was unfamiliar with that case.
There were some discrepancies presented Thursday related to the timing of the alleged incident. The woman told police Kingston came to her apartment in the 11 p.m. hour on Feb. 22, 2025, but Layton said texts sent to Kingston's friends had time stamps of approximately 1:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 23.
Tangaro argued that the allegations are a case of "he-said, she-said" and asked the judge not to bind the case over for trial. When Kingston was questioned by police, he said all activity with the woman was consensual, according to charging documents.
Kingston pleaded not guilty to the rape charge Thursday, and Winward set a four-day trial to begin in next month on May 26.
The former BYU wide receiver, originally from Layton, was a rising senior and had a team-high 928 receiving yards and five touchdowns last year, in addition to returning 17 punts for 230 yards and a touchdown for the 12-2 Cougars.
Correction: An earlier version said prosecutors played video of a police interview but it was the defense who presented it.
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Arianne Brown
