LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas 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, Wichita 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.
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 tria