Football star lured disabled babysitter to his home – then raped her
Former San Francisco 49ers player Dana Stubblefield is facing 15 years to life in prison.
A former football star was found guilty of luring a disabled babysitter to his home and raping her at gunpoint.
Dana Stubblefield, a former San Francisco 49er, was convicted of rape by force, oral copulation by force and false imprisonment on Monday in San Jose, California.
Prosecutors said Stubblefield, 49, used a gun during the horrific attack on the 31-year-old woman in April 2015.
The day before the assault, Stubblefield contacted the victim on a babysitting website and arraigned an interview, which lasted about 20 minutes. The victim later received a text from Stubblefield saying that he wanted to pay her for her time that day, so she returned to his house, according to prosecutors.
Stubblefield raped her when she came back. Afterward, he paid her $80 and let her go free. The victim immediately went to police and reported the rape. According to the police report, DNA taken matched Stubblefield.
Defense lawyers for Stubblefield insisted that their client did not rape the woman and instead claimed that the woman consented to sex.
One of the attorneys, Allen Sawyer, described the incident as a ‘paid encounter for sex’ and said Stubblefield’s defense was prevented from showing evidence that would have supported that claim.
‘There’s a lot of information that we have, that the jury was not allowed to have, that we think would have been impactful to their decision,’ Sawyer told the San Francisco Chronicle.
‘We expect to keep fighting for Mr Stubblefield’s innocense. We will clear his name, and we look forward to fighting this out in the courts. This is just the first battle.’
Stubblefield is facing 15 years to life in prison and was remanded to jail without pail pending his sentence.
He began his NFL career in 1993 for 49ers and was named to the All-Pro team from 1994 to 1997. In his final season in 2003, Stubblefield tested positive for steroids while playing for the Oakland Raiders. A federal judge fined him $5,000 and placed him on two years’ probation for lying to an IRS agent about the steroid use.
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