LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) - A Wichita man who was serving a 12-year prison sentence for rape before a judge ordered that he receive a new trial might not be tried a second time, Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez said Tuesday.
Albert Wilson, 25, was granted a new trial last week after Judge Sally Pokorny ruled he had received ineffective counsel before he was convicted of one count of rape in 2019.
During a hearing on Tuesday, Valdez said her office planned to work with Wilson’s attorneys to resolve the case without a second trial “so that we can hopefully get justice for both the defendant and the survivor,” The Lawrence Journal-World reported.
Wilson’s next court date was scheduled for May 13. He has been released from prison.
A girl who was 17 at the time said that she met Wilson, who was 20, at a Lawrence bar on Sept. 11, 2016. She said he assaulted her at the bar and later raped her at his house while she was drunk.
During his appeal for a new trial, Wilson’s attorneys focused on thousands of text messages on the girl’s phone, which Wilson’s original attorney did not present as evidence at the trial.
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