A jury in Wilkes Superior Court deliberated just over a half hour late Thursday afternoon before finding a former custodian at North Wilkes High School not guilty of raping a student in November 2016.
Alvis Bruce Calhoun, 64, of 325 Montieth Acres, Hays, was charged with second-degree forcible rape, second-degree forcible sex offense, taking indecent liberties with a student and four counts of committing a sexual act on a student.
Representing Calhoun were attorneys Jay Vannoy and Brandon York of North Wilkesboro and prosecuting for the state was Assistant District Attorney Kisa Posey. Presiding over the week and a half-long trial was Judge Martin McGee of Concord.
After being instructed by McGee on applicable law in the case, jurors retired to the jury room and selected a foreperson. McGee, around 5 p.m., asked jurors if they would like to go home and resume deliberations in the morning. They asked to continue deliberations in an effort to reach a decision and returned to the courtroom about a half hour later with the not guilty verdicts.
Calhoun and his family members “were all in tears” after he was acquitted, Vannoy said. “I’m very happy for Mr. Calhoun and his family. We believed in his innocence all along.”
“We were all very pleased with the verdict, Vannoy said. “I appreciate the jury’s attention. I could tell (jurors) were very attentive.”
The incident occurred Nov. 4, 2016, following a football game at the high school between North and Wilkes Central, according to testimony.
The girl, 17 at the time and a junior at North, testified Tuesday about being raped by Calhoun.
She said she went to the game alone and met friends in a parking lot where people tailgate before football games. She said that she and Nathaniel Godfrey left before the game and obtained some 4 Loko malt beverages. Several witnesses testified that this brand has a very high alcohol content.
Godfrey testified that he and the girl also purchased marijuana and smoked it.
She said she became highly intoxicated through the evening as she, Godfrey and two other boys rode around and drank. The girl noted that she hadn’t eaten anything that day.
Around midnight, the boys dropped her off in front of the school, saying they couldn’t take her home. She said she saw Calhoun’s pickup in the parking lot and approached him.
The girl said she was so intoxicated that she had trouble walking and was vomiting. “I felt wobbly and I felt sick,” she said.
Calhoun offered to give her a ride, she said. The girl asked to use his cell phone to call someone to pick her up, but he said he didn’t have any service at the school.
After giving her his jacket, Calhoun helped the girl into his truck. She said she vomited before they got out of the parking lot. “My eyes were kind of opening and shutting,” she said. “I couldn’t move.”
The girl said she could feel that Calhoun was driving in the opposite direction of her home, and that he eventually turned onto a gravel road and stopped.
She said Calhoun molested her with his hand before getting out and walking around to her side. The girl said Calhoun then pulled her pants down and raped her.
“I couldn’t do anything to stop him. I was so wasted,” she said.
“It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me,” the girl testified. Sobbing on the witness stand, she said, “I’ve never been so embarrassed.”
Calhoun, who had been a janitor at North for three years, told her, “I’ve been wanting to do this ever since I first met you,” the girl said.
On the way to her home, Calhoun “said he’d had a really good time,” she said. “He kept telling me I was beautiful,” and also said she shouldn’t tell anyone about what had happened.
The girl said she dropped out of school after being raped because she couldn’t bear to see Calhoun there.
Jason Llewellyn, principal of C.B. Eller Elementary School and, at that time, assistant principal at North, said he was approached by the girl on the night of Jan. 14, 2017, while he was working at a basketball game at the high school. He was told by the girl that she had been raped by a custodian named Bruce and that this was the reason she had quit school.
Llewellyn contacted Wilkes Superintendent of Schools Mark Byrd about this situation and then informed authorities. The girl and Calhoun were interviewed before he was charged. Calhoun was fired from his job at North after being charged, Vannoy said.
Det. Jason Adams of the Wilkes Sheriff’s Office testified earlier in the trial that Calhoun admitted “messing with her” and said he shouldn’t have done it.
On the day of his arrest, Calhoun told the detective that he was afraid of losing his 38-year marriage and felt suicidal.
Calhoun, testifying Wednesday in his own defense, said no one was left at the high school on the night of the football game when the girl approached him. He said he didn’t smell alcohol on her and that she didn’t appear intoxicated. He said that she did say she was nauseous and appeared to vomit.
“I asked her why a pretty girl like her would come to school without a ride,” Calhoun said. He said the girl responded that she “had issues.”
He said the girl told him to turn right out of the high school’s parking lot and not left toward her home. He said he stopped at Grissel Tail Road after she said they were going the wrong direction.
Calhoun said the girl opened the passenger’s side door and appeared to vomit. Afraid she was going fall out, he walked around to that side of the truck.
He said that by the time he walked around the girl had pulled her pants and underwear down and was “giggling.”
“I rubbed her on the belly. I said, ‘Babe, this is not happening,” Calhoun testified.
He said that after the girl pulled her pants up, he drove her home. Calhoun said the girl’s father asked who he was and he explained that he was a janitor at North and that she had asked for a ride home.
Calhoun denied raping or molesting the girl.
