Navy QB said things "escalated" on night of alleged rape

<p>U.S. Naval Academy quarterback Lamar Owens Jr. told the friend of a woman he allegedly raped that he "didn't know what he was thinking" when he went into her room early one January morning and had sex with her.</p><p>Testifying Thursday at the Washington Navy Yard at Owens' court-martial for rape, the friend said Owens told her that things "escalated" when he approached the woman as she slept in her bed but that he should have left before anything happened.</p><p>Owens said "if someone had done this to his sister, he would want to kill the person who did it," the friend told the jury of five Naval Academy officers.</p><p>When questioned by Owens' attorney, the friend acknowledged that the senior midshipman had not admitted to sexually assaulting the woman.</p><p>"He never said that he raped her?" attorney Brian Heberlig asked.</p><p>"Yes that's true," the friend replied.</p><p>The Associated Press is not identifying the woman or her close friends because she is an alleged victim of sexual assault.</p><p>Owens, 22, of Savannah, Ga., is charged with rape, conduct unbecoming an officer, and violating a protective order. If convicted, he would be eligible for a maximum term of life in prison.</p><p>The former football standout led Navy's football team to an 8-4 record that included victories over military academy rivals Air Force and Army and a victory in the Poinsettia Bowl over Colorado State. He was the team's most valuable player.</p><p>Owens' attorneys say the sex was consensual and that the alleged victim invited him to her room. The woman, who admits she was drunk, has only a spotty memory of the incident but says she didn't consent to sex and tired to move away when he got on top of her.</p><p>A nurse who examined the alleged victim a few days after the incident said that the woman showed no physical signs of rape when she conducted a rape kit at Bethesda National Naval Medical Center.</p><p>However, Lt. Cmdr. Amy Branstetter said that didn't necessarily mean there hadn't been any abuse.</p><p>Another sexual abuse court-martial for a Navy football player is set to begin July 24, and an academy instructor accused of making crude sexual remarks to a female midshipman goes on trial in August.</p>