College Football

Latest in Jameis Winston investigation: Search warrant details revealed

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 9:47 p.m. ET

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A woman who accused Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston of sexual assault told police she had been out drinking with friends before ending up at an apartment where she alleged she was raped despite her efforts to fight off her attacker, FOX Sports 1 has learned.

According to a search warrant affidavit issued for the woman’s cell phone records, she had five to six shots at a local night spot then “began to feel the effects of the drinks” before she was taken to an apartment, where she has alleged the attack occurred.

The incident occurred early on the morning of Dec. 7, 2012, although it did not become public until mid-November.

State prosecutors are expected to announce Thursday whether they will file charges against Winston, the redshirt freshman who has led Florida State to an undefeated season, a No. 1 ranking in the polls — and who has emerged as the frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy.

The search warrant affidavit, obtained Thursday morning by FOX Sports 1, details her allegation that she was sexually assaulted by someone she did not know — and that she was so impaired that she was unable to tell a detective where the incident occurred. She told the detective that she was with friends who left and she had only hazy recollections of details after that.

The woman had contacted police within an hour of the alleged rape.

“Her memory is very broken from that point forward,” a detective wrote in the document. “She remembers being in what she thinks is a cab” with a “non-descript” African-American man “in the back seat with her.”

“She then remembers entering an apartment on the ground floor (no other description available),” the detective wrote. “She remembers the male taking off her clothes then engaging in penile/vaginal sex with her as she told him to stop and tried to fight him off.”

The incident occurred early the morning of Dec. 7, 2012, at an off-campus apartment.

The woman called police about five weeks after the incident and identified Winston — at the time a highly regarded recruit but a player who had yet to appear in a game — as her attacker.

A source previously told FOX Sports that she identified Winston after seeing him on campus, and a subsequent sample of his DNA matched evidence obtained by police at the time of the incident.

Winston’s attorney has subsequently said the encounter was consensual — a charge that the woman and her family refuted in a sharply worded statement which said, among other things, “the victim did not consent. This was a rape.”

The search warrant was executed last Jan. 16 but not filed with court officials until Thursday.

“At some point another black male with dreads came into the room and told him to stop,” the detective wrote. “The suspect led the victim into the bathroom and completed the act.

“Her next memory is the suspect dressing her then putting her on a black scooter. She told him where she lived and he dropped her off at the intersection of Call and stadium. The victim has no idea where the incident occurred.”

The detective noted that other cell phone records indicated that the woman sent “multiple text messages” immediately following the incident. The warrant was sought so that detectives could obtain the actual messages as part of the investigation.

Legal experts in Tallahassee have said they believed it was unlikely that Winston would be charged. However, the decision of State Attorney Willie Meggs won’t be known with certainty until he announces the results of his investigation later Thursday.

If Winston is charged, he would most likely be suspended by Florida State — the school’s athletic conduct code requires it in all but the most extraordinary cases.