For the second time, Galen Satoe’s future is in the hands of a dozen strangers.

Thursday morning prosecutor C.J. Rieg and defense attorney Angela Keck offered closing arguments in Satoe’s second rape trial. Afterward the jury filed out of Judge Paula Martin’s courtroom to begin deliberating the case.

Satoe faces two felony rape charges, one felony charge of aggravated criminal sodomy, one felony charge of attempted rape and one felony charge of attempted aggravated criminal sodomy. His first criminal trial ended in August 2016 with a hung jury.

The criminal charges stem from Nov. 15, 2014, when a 19-year-old freshman at Haskell Indian Nations University claimed Satoe and Jared Wheeler raped her in the dormitory room the two men shared.

Wheeler, 21, pleaded no contest to a single felony charge of aggravated battery after his criminal trial also ended with a hung jury. Martin sentenced him to serve 60 days in jail, the maximum she could give him. He is currently serving that time in the Douglas County Jail.

Galen Satoe

Jared Wheeler

Throughout the trial Keck has maintained that the woman was not raped but participated in a consensual threesome.

During her closing arguments she pointed to inconsistencies in the reported victim’s statements and a lack of physical evidence supporting her claims of rape.

Keck also noted shortcomings in the investigative process, which included botched photos of reported injuries and a failure to follow evidence-collection protocols.

Rieg, however, argued that witness testimony is more than enough to overcome any lack of physical evidence. She recalled Satoe’s recorded interview with detectives in which he admitted to having sex with the reported victim and holding her down for some time after she had asked the two men to stop.

Satoe’s brother had also called the reported victim and offered her “compensation” in exchange for not testifying against Satoe, Rieg said, referring to earlier testimony in the case.

Rieg also pointed to a change in the reported victim’s demeanor, which was noticed by her close friends who testified earlier in the trial.

“Distraught, stoic, crying, hyperventilating,” Rieg said. “They knew immediately something happened to her.”

As an example, Rieg showed jurors a photograph of the reported victim taken before the incident in question. In the picture, Satoe, Wheeler, the woman and another friend, Dakota Botone, can be seen smiling and sitting on Satoe’s bed.

“Look at that smile, look at the sparkle in her eyes. Those are her buddies,” Rieg said. “She’s hanging out with guys that were like her brothers.”

Next, Rieg showed jurors a poorly lit photograph, taken during the reported victim’s sexual assault examination at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

In the photograph the woman’s bare shoulders can be seen and she is slouching, looking downward and frowning.

“This is how they changed her,” she said.

Not long after deliberations began the jury had a question. Martin had the jurors return to the courtroom where the court reporter read back a section of testimony regarding photographic evidence of the reported victim’s injuries.

In the testimony Rieg questioned Jennifer Johnson, an advanced forensic nurse at Shawnee Mission Medical Center and a witness for the defense.

Johnson said she only reviewed three photographs of the reported victim and injuries were not visible in any of them.

During that line of questioning Rieg acknowledged that the Lawrence Memorial Hospital nurse who examined the reported victim did, in fact, take more photographs, but due to an error they were dark and out of focus.

After the court reporter finished reading the testimony aloud, jurors returned to the deliberation room to continue their discussion.

By 5 p.m. the jurors had not reached a unanimous decision and court was adjourned for the day. Deliberations will resume Friday morning.