Pullman, Washington- Not a day has passed since Sept. 12, 2007, that Kyle M. Schott [pictured left] hasn’t thought about that night. The night he drunkenly raped a woman sleeping at the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.
On Thursday, Schott told the jury his murky memories of the night. His testimony provided yet another version of facts in the Christopher Jack Reid [aka Jack Venice] trial.
Schott, a 24-year-old former Washington State University student, is in prison for committing third-degree rape and second-degree burglary. He is serving a lessened sentence as part of a deal to testify against Reid.
Reid, a 26-year-old adult film actor, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree rape, first-degree burglary, attempted residential burglary and two charges of residential burglary.
During four days of trial, witness after witness has told the jury that on Sept. 12 and early Sept. 13, Reid and Schott traveled Greek Row, climbing into windows and looking for fun.
Because of that night, Schott will lose a little more than a year of his life to prison time. If convicted, Reid could lose the rest of his.
Reid’s defense attorney, Chris Bugbee, said he and Reid have not decided if Reid will testify today. Bugbee has maintained that the evidence does not prove Reid was in Kappa Alpha Theta.
Bugbee will cross-examine Schott today. After that, Whitman County Prosecutor Denis Tracy said he has only two “very brief” witnesses left.
If Reid does not testify, Bugbee and Tracy will give final statements after Schott’s cross-examination. Afterward, the jury will decide the case.
Schott said he and Reid were drinking until last call at Stubblefield’s around 1:45 a.m. on Sept 13. They went to a house party, but were kicked out when Reid showed his penis to residents of the house.
Schott said Reid wanted to find more parties or sororities. When asked why, Schott said Reid wanted to find women.
“Pretty much just because there was females in there, that’s what he was looking for,” Schott said.
Sitting slumped in a gray suit, Schott told of boosting Reid into at least one window and one balcony after they left the bar.
He said Reid first went into Pi Beta Phi and then Delta Gamma. When Reid opened the front door of Delta Gamma for Schott, a sorority member was already asking him to leave. Another member came into the room and did the same.
“I stood at the entryway thinking, ‘What’s he going to do next?” Schott said. “(The women) were both saying ‘You can’t be in here,’ but the general feeling I got was they were laughing, like ‘What the hell’s going on?’” Schott said Reid then wanted to break into Kappa Alpha Theta. They entered the house, pausing briefly in a study room.
“I was reluctant at first, but then it seemed, to me at the time, kind of funny,” Schott said. “We walked by the front door like, ‘All right, let’s go.’ So we walked up the stairs.” The two heard a TV on in a bedroom down the hall. They walked in and saw a woman sleeping.
Schott said Reid lifted off her blanket, while Schott nudged her to see if she’d wake. Schott said Reid bragged that he could get the woman to sleep with him.
“Jack explained this is what he was looking for,” Schott said. “I was kind of relunctant, but he seemed used to the situation.” Schott said his biggest mistake was egging Reid on, saying Reid couldn’t seduce the woman.
Schott said Reid fondled the woman and may have penetrated her with his penis or finger. Schott said he touched the woman sexually as well. He said the fact is difficult to admit.
“There hasn’t been a day since it happened that I haven’t felt sorry, not for myself, but for her, her whole sorority and the whole situation,” he said. “I had never been in a situation like that. It was just stupidity and curiosity that drove me to do so.” Schott said after he touched the woman, he sat in the corner, looking at DVDs while Reid fondled and possibly raped the woman. When she awoke, they ran.
Almost every sorority or fraternity member who met Schott and Reid that night said the two seemed drunk and mischievous, but not necessarily harmful.
The defense and prosecutor interrogated each witness as to the exact times of these encounters. They asked one woman if she noticed Reid and Schott in her house at 3:40 or 3:50 a.m. They asked one man if the two stayed outside his fraternity for five minutes or 10.
The witnesses tried to remember. If they offered a time that differed even slightly from their initial police statements, they were questioned further.
Both sides want a clear timeline of events, which could exonerate or incriminate Reid. No such timeline has developed.
On Wednesday, Bugbee and Tracy both interrogated former WSU student Colin Davis, who was with Reid and Schott for part of that night. Both insinuated he might have played a role in the alleged criminal activities.
Davis said he went home around 2 a.m., before Schott and Reid allegedly broke into Greek houses and assaulted the sleeping woman.
He said he was not 100 percent certain, and that Schott may have called him later to ask him to come back out. He agreed to hand over his cell phone records.
On Thursday, Pullman Police Det. Greg Umbright said those call records show no such call occurred. Schott and Davis did not contact each other by phone again until the next afternoon.
Tracy and Bugbee repeatedly asked witnesses if they saw a third man. The only person who answered affirmatively was a senior member of Pi Beta Phi.
She said she saw Reid and another, shorter man inside her house and Schott outside on the porch.
Tracy said that Davis has not been charged with a crime, is not under investigation and is not a suspect. However, he remains on-call as a witness.
Schott should finish his cross-examination today. Bugbee will also have to announce if Reid will testify.
Whitman County Superior Court Judge David Frazier asked Bugbee and Reid to meet with him Thursday evening to prepare final jury instructions.
“I’d like to have a set of instructions ready to go as soon as the evidence is done,” Frazier said. “At some point when a set I feel is appropriate is settled, we will go back to court on-the-record.”