The 29-year-old man arrested several years ago in Murfreesboro for raping another man at a party was in a Rutherford County Courtroom this week.
Investigative work by now retired MPD Detective Tommy Roberts showed that the victim had blacked out while drinking and smoking marijuana at a party in 2019.
A 2019 police report showed that friends of the 19-year-old victim told him that he was raped, evidently while he was passed out. Those so-called friends were able to name the man who they believed raped the victim, which led Detective Roberts to Austin Poteete, who was 26-years-old at the start of the investigation. A portion of the attack on the victim was reportedly captured on a Nest home security camera.
As the investigation into the rape continued, it was reveled that Poteete was accused of using hair gel as a form of lubrication on the victim.
Detectives sent evidence to the TBI Crime Lab to be further examined for DNA evidence. Two months later, the evidence was presented to a May 2019 Grand Jury, which led to Poteete to be indicted on 4-counts of rape and 2-counts of sexual battery.
This week in court, two of the rape charges were reduced to attempted rape. Poteete was officially found guilty on two counts of rape, two counts of attempted rape and two counts of sexual battery.
Source:
MPD Incident 19-0005930
TCA 39-13-503 and TCA 39-13-505
Rutherford County Courts
