A sample of Jameis Winston‘s DNA has tied the Florida State quarterback to the woman who had filed a complaint of sexual assault last December, ESPN.com‘s Mark Schlabach reported very early Thursday morning.
An analysis of the sample, which Winston recently provided to law enforcement, was completed Tuesday by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the results of which showed that the odds the DNA came from someone other than Winston to be one in 2.2 trillion. Winston’s sample matched the DNA found in the alleged victim’s underwear, which was obtained via a sexual assault kit after she filed a complaint with the Tallahassee Police Department.
As of Thursday morning, ESPN is the only media entity reporting on the results of the DNA analysis.
In a statement released Wednesday, the alleged victim’s family named Winston as “the perpetrator” in what they described as a rape; the fact that Winston’s DNA is tied to the alleged victim does not prove sexual assault, only that there was some type of physical interaction between the two at some point prior to the rape kit being taken.
The statement had also blasted the TPD for failing to obtain a sample of Winston’s DNA at the time of their investigation into the Dec. 7 complaint.
That case, which was considered “open-inactive” because it was claimed the alleged victim stopped cooperating with authorities, was forwarded 11 months later to the Florida state’s attorney’s office, which has reopened the investigation. It’s unclear at this point how the DNA report will impact the pace of the probe or when a final decision on whether to charge Winston, or anyone else for that matter, with felony sexual assault.
Until then, the controversy and possible charges -- charges that likely wouldn’t be filed until next week at the earliest -- will continue to hang over the head of a young man who is considered the Heisman front-runner and leads the No. 2 team in the country -- and the head of the alleged victim.
“I’m not stupid,” state’s attorney Willie Meggs told Schlabach prior to the DNA report. “It is a young man whose life is in a fish bowl right now. I think about that. There’s also a young girl whose life has been turned upside down and her life will never be the same, either. We look at it and say, ‘Which one of those is most important?’ Both. It is a search for the truth and the truth is kind of elusive sometimes.”
CFT has reached out to Meggs’ office for comment but has not yet received a response.
UPDATED 10:02 a.m. ET: The attorney representing Winston, Tim Jansen, confirmed to the Tallahassee Democrat that his client had “voluntarily submitted to a DNA test,” although he did not specify when that sample was taken. Jansen added that he has not seen a copy of the DNA report.