photo by: Mike Yoder

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th St., pictured Feb. 1, 2016.

A University of Kansas student charged with a sex crime against a teenage girl met her on Snapchat before inviting her to his place, the girl testified this week.

The girl, now 16, was 15 last fall when the man added her on the social media app “out of nowhere,” she said. After messaging for a few weeks, and after he promised her marijuana and money, she agreed to drive from her home in El Dorado to meet him in Lawrence, she said.

The girl spoke at a preliminary hearing for Connor Z. Claxton, 23, of Lawrence, who was arrested and charged in April for crimes that allegedly occurred in September 2017 at his apartment near the KU campus. At Monday’s hearing, Douglas County District Court Judge Peggy Kittel found there was probable cause to bind him over for trial on multiple criminal charges.

Claxton faces one count each of criminal sodomy against a victim between 14 and 16 years old, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, using a communication device to distribute a controlled substance, and possession of paraphernalia to distribute drugs, all felonies.

Regarding the sex crime, because it’s a statutory offense based on the victim’s age “it doesn’t have to do with consent,” prosecutor Amy McGowan said.

Claxton pleaded not guilty to the charges through his appointed attorney, Michael Clarke. Clarke declined additional response to the allegations after the hearing.

According to court records, Claxton was released from jail on a $50,000 bond while he awaits his trial, scheduled for Sept. 26. He remains listed as a KU student, according to the university directory.

photo by: Douglas County Sheriff’s Office

Connor Z. Claxton

The girl said that when she arrived in Lawrence, she met Claxton at a gas station where he paid for her to fill up her car. Then they went to his apartment, where he offered, and she took, a hit from a bong.

She said his social media messages to her had been sexual — even after she told him her age — and that he’d asked her to have sex but she said no. At his apartment, she said she agreed to his request to give him oral sex, but stopped after she began feeling light headed and sick to her stomach.

After lying down and sleeping a while, the girl left and got pulled over for driving the wrong way on a one-way street, she said. She had $45 that Claxton had given her in addition to buying her gas earlier, but no marijuana, she said.

Det. Kimberlee Nicholson of the Lawrence Police Department pulled over the girl, about 1:45 a.m. Sept. 14, 2017, near South Park, Nicholson testified. The girl explained what she was doing in town and, eventually, what had happened.

The next day Nicholson and another detective went to Claxton’s home and saw a man go to the door and buy marijuana, confirmed after confronting him in the parking lot, Nicholson said.

Claxton gave permission to search his apartment, and detectives found a jar of marijuana, a digital scale, baggies, a grinder and a “Star Wars bong” like the one the girl had described, Nicholson said. They also viewed messages on his phone setting up the drug sale with the man who’d just stopped by.

Nicholson said police interviewed Claxton about the girl’s visit, and he eventually admitted to what the girl previously described, including the sex act. Nicholson said Claxton told police he thought the girl was a sophomore in high school, either 15 or 16 years old.

Nicholson said the girl did not undergo a sexual assault examination at the hospital and that she was unaware of other physical evidence that would substantiate the sexual contact.

According to the affidavit police prepared in support of Claxton’s arrest, which the Journal-World requested and received from the court, Claxton told police that he’d used the same “anonymous” Snapchat account to sell marijuana and have sexual conversations with other high school girls, though he had not met up with others.