photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Calistus Ezenwa exits the courtroom on Jan. 24, 2025, in Douglas County District Court.

A judge denied house arrest on Friday for an international student accused of rape after hearing from a professor and Catholic deacon who had offered to let the student stay in his home.

The student, Calistus Chukwuma Ezenwa, 21, is charged in Douglas County District Court with one count of rape and one count of criminal sodomy, both felonies, in connection with an incident on Nov. 21, 2024, according to charging documents.

Ezenwa has been in custody on a $250,000 bond since his arrest on Dec. 20. His attorney, Gary West, asked Judge Stacey Donovan on Friday to change the bond to an own-recognizance bond, meaning he would not be required to pay any money to be released, with house arrest and GPS monitoring. West said Ezenwa had been studying at the University of Kansas on a student visa.

During the hearing on Friday, West called Michael Murray, a professor of physics and astronomy at KU and a deacon at the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center. Murray said he had met Ezenwa four or five times through services at the Catholic center and during a dinner. He said he felt familiar enough with Ezenwa to allow him to stay in his home, about 3 miles from the KU campus, if Ezenwa were to be released on house arrest.

Murray said Ezenwa first called him for help while in jail over the Christmas holiday, and that Ezenwa’s sister then put Murray in contact with West.

West argued that Murray’s ties to the Lawrence community made him a good candidate to house Ezenwa. But Assistant District Attorney Samantha Foster did not agree. She asked Murray what motivated him to offer to let Ezenwa stay in his home, despite the “heinous crime” that Ezenwa was accused of, after only meeting Ezenwa a handful of times.

“My conscience,” Murray replied.

Foster argued that any ties between Ezenwa and Murray weren’t enough to ensure that Ezenwa wouldn’t flee the country if given the chance. She called an investigator with the Lawrence Police Department special victims unit, Officer Cody Keenan, who testified that locating and identifying Ezenwa was no easy task.

Keenan said that Ezenwa told police he was from Nigeria, but that Ezenwa also had no clear registered identification in state, federal or international databases. He said police tried to use cell phone location data from Tinder and Snapchat and information from the alleged victim to locate Ezenwa’s residence, but found that he was no longer living there. Eventually, police were able to confirm that Ezenwa had recently moved into housing on the KU campus.

Foster said that Ezenwa had been in Lawrence for less than five months before being accused of a serious crime, and that there was no way to ensure that Ezenwa would stay and face charges in a case that could carry a yearslong prison sentence if he were convicted. Foster added that the alleged victim was also prepared to testify about her fear for her own safety if Ezenwa were to be released.

“The idea that he would be out even on GPS monitoring, that is terrifying for her,” Foster said.

Donovan said she did not need the alleged victim to testify. She said she had already decided that Ezenwa was a flight risk and possibly a threat to the community, and that the existing bond conditions without house arrest were appropriate.

Ezenwa is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in the case on April 18.