ST. GEORGE, Utah — A judge ruled Thursday that there is enough evidence to proceed with a jury trial for former BYU football player Parker Kingston, who is accused of rape.
Kingston is accused of assaulting a 20-year-old woman in her St. George home in February 2025. Following the allegations, Kingston was kicked off the BYU football team and expelled from the university.
During a preliminary hearing at the Fifth District Courthouse, defense attorney Cara Tangaro argued the case lacks evidence beyond a "he said, she said" account of what happened behind closed doors. Judge Jay Winward ruled the trial will proceed.
"The he-said-she-said accounts are not so contradictory," Winward said. “Again, not so contradictory and inconsistent that it defies belief, but it's conflicting evidence, but still credible evidence.
The jury trial is scheduled to begin on May 26. If convicted, Kingston faces five years to life in prison.
Tangaro argued the alleged victim did not come forward with accusations until the exact day a civil suit against Kingston's teammate, Zach Retzlaff, was made public in the Salt Lake Tribune.
"So that is an article about the quarterback of BYU's team that a civil suit has filed against him. And that's about four hours before the alleged victim comes forward," Tangaro said.
St. George Police Detective Cody Layton, the lead detective and sole witness on the stand, testified the alleged victim went to the hospital four days after the incident, but a DNA kit did not show male DNA.
Layton said investigators could not recover texts from the plaintiff’s phone, but they did recover a conversation Kingston had with a teammate using a slang term for sex. Layton confronted Kingston about the text message.
"I just asked him about the phrases that were used. And we asked him what that meant to him, and he said that it was sex," Layton said.
During cross-examination, Layton said he had not interviewed a neighbor who spoke with the alleged victim, who was a St. George Police officer. Tangaro also noted contradictions in statements made by the alleged victim.
Prosecutor Ryan Shaum disputed the defense's claims regarding the contradictions.
"Words have meaning and words have context. And Miss Tangaro talks about the cad call and what was said and what was not said," Shaum said.
A tape of an interview with the alleged victim was played in court. Winward ordered those in the courtroom and the media not to reveal anything that might indicate her identity to protect both parties and avoid tainting a potential jury.
