COLFAX, Wash. - Porn actor Jack Venice, a.k.a. Christopher Jack Reid, was convicted of second-degree rape, first-degree burglary and two counts of residential burglary on Friday in Whitman County Superior Court.
The convictions stem from incidents that took place in September of last year on the campus of Washington State University in Pullman. According to testimony in the case, Reid, 26, and Kyle M. Schott, a 24-year-old former WSU student, broke into several sorority houses on campus and sexually assaulted a student while she slept.
Reid did not testify during the four-day trial. Schott is already serving a 13-month sentence in state prison after pleading guilty earlier this month to third-degree rape and second-degree burglary. He testified against Reid as part of a plea-bargaining deal.
According to Whitman County prosecutor Denis Tracy, Reid came to Pullman looking for coeds to participate in an amateur porn video. Defense attorney Chris Bugbee claimed Reid was only in town to party while in between adult video shoots.
Reid and Schott started the evening of Sept. 12, 2007 at a local bar called Stubblefield's. Over drinks, Reid reportedly bragged about his X-rated career and his ability to seduce women. After last call at 2 a.m., the two went out looking for parties.
According to reports, Reid and Schott first stopped at a house party, where a drunken Reid allegedly boasted again about his porn profession and offered a resident $500 to use his bed to shoot a video. The two were thrown out after Reid pulled out his penis.
Schott said he and Reid then prowled the WSU campus, breaking into three sorority houses and a frat house. The sexual assault took place at the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority at around 4 a.m.
Schott testified that he and Reid found a woman asleep in a bedroom at the Kappa Alpha Theta house, and Reid boasted that he could get the woman to have sex with him. Schott said that he goaded Reid by saying he couldn't get the woman to do it.
"[Reid] explained this is what he was looking for,” Schott said. “I was kind of reluctant, but he seemed used to the situation."
According to Schott, Reid fondled and spooned the sleeping woman and then asked him for a condom.
The victim told jurors she woke up on the floor to the sound of a condom wrapper being torn. She felt someone touching her genitals and turned around to see two men in the room - one of them, she said, was Reid.
"When I rolled over, I saw his face," she said. "I can't forget that face."
While Reid may not have had intercourse with the victim, Washington state law defines an act of penetration as rape. According to Schott, Reid may have penetrated the victim with his finger or his penis. Schott admitted to touching the woman sexually himself.
"There hasn’t been a day since it happened that I haven’t felt sorry, not for myself, but for her, her whole sorority and the whole situation," Schott said. "I had never been in a situation like that. It was just stupidity and curiosity that drove me to do so."
When the victim awoke, the two men fled. She reported the rape at about 4:30 a.m.
Bugbee insisted that Reid had left Schott before the incident at Kappa Alpha Theta. The defense claimed a third man, former WSU student Colin Davis, was the one in the victim's bedroom with Schott.
Davis admitted on the witness stand that he was with Reid and Schott at Stubblefield's on the night of the rape, but said he left them at the bar and went home drunk. Cell phone records showed that Davis did not contact Schott or Reid after returning home.
The defense pointed to DNA evidence from the condom, a tampon, and the victim's rape kit that did not match Reid. But a forensic scientist testified that the inconclusive DNA tests could not rule out Reid or Schott.
Bugbee told jurors that Reid was unfairly charged in the case because of his association with the adult industry. The defense attorney argued that Schott had falsely implicated Reid to cover up for his friend, Davis.
"Chris Reid is a scapegoat, and he’s a darn good scapegoat,” Bugbee said. "He had no film crew. He talks a big game, but he had no intent to do scenes in Pullman. Despite what he said, it’s just his way to get in and meet people."
Reid has performed in more than 140 adult videos since entering the business in 2004. He is best known for his appearances in Shane's World titles such as College Amateur Tour (which he directed), Shane's World: Girls Night Out, California Dreamin' and Frat House Fuckfest. Reid is also the current boyfriend of Vivid contract girl Hanna Hilton.
Reid faces up to life in prison for the crime. He will remain in custody until he is sentenced on Dec. 5.
Source: The Daily Evergreen
