Cerritos College Football Player Guilty Of Raping Classmate

NORWALK, CA — A former Cerritos College football player is facing up to 18 years in state prison and lifetime sex offender registration for raping a fellow college student, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced Friday.

Jurors deliberated less than a day before finding Kishawn Holmes, 22, guilty of one count of forcible rape. The panel on Thursday acquitted him of a second rape charge involving the same woman on the same day, according to Sarah Ardalani of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Holmes invited the woman to his Norwalk apartment, where he sexually assaulted her on Sept. 8, 2016, according to Deputy District Attorney Mariela Torres.

The woman told several people about the attack, but waited until January 2017 to alert authorities, according to trial testimony. The woman "was apparently working as a student physical therapist for the school," sheriff's Sgt. Marvin Jaramilla said shortly after Holmes' arrest the following month.

"All we know is she was in a session setting with him to provide him some sort of physical therapy," the sergeant said. "Shortly after the session, that's when the incident occurred."

Holmes -- whom the prosecution alleges has a 2014 conviction in a sexual assault case -- is due in a Norwalk courtroom for sentencing May 2.

City News Service; Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department