Prosecutors at Hope Npimnee’s sex assault trial called him a man with a calculated plan.
Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Chris Reid said Npimnee, 29, was cruising around downtown Lincoln “looking for prey†when he found a drunk college student waiting for a ride home, picked her up and drove her to a dark corner of a parking lot nearby.
On the other side, defense attorneys said Npimnee’s 21-year-old accuser got in his car and made out with him willingly. When things moved to oral sex, she said no and he stopped, Deputy Lancaster County Public Defender Nathan Sohriakoff said.
“That’s not rape,†he told the jury in closing arguments Thursday.
Npimnee’s accuser testified that she said no more than once, but he didn’t stop until police pulled up.
During a routine patrol early July 9, 2021, a University Police officer found them in a University of Nebraska-Lincoln lot at 19th and Vine streets. Npimnee was standing outside the passenger side of his car. The young woman was in the passenger seat with her shorts at her ankles.
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“Oh, my God, oh, my God,†she could be heard saying on the officer’s bodycam.
The woman, a college student in Omaha who had been in Lincoln to celebrate her cousin’s birthday, this week told the jury that she told Npimnee no more than once.
Asked if she’d done anything to physically resist, she said no. In fight or flight situations, she said she tends to freeze.
“Were you scared about what was happening?†Reid asked her.
“Yes,†she said, during emotional testimony.
She said she worried about where it was headed if the cops didn’t show up when they did.
Sohriakoff, the defense attorney, focused on a pretrial deposition where the victim said she couldn’t remember when she said no first. That it may have been after the oral sex started.
He said that the bodycam video showed Npimnee standing outside the car, a phone in his hands, when the police light came on. Sohriakoff argued that the police didn’t stop anything — when the woman said no, Npimnee stopped.
“We all want to believe alleged victims. That’s a good instinct that we have. But we have to make sure the facts corroborate what happened. And here they don’t,†Sohriakoff argued.
He acknowledged that Npimnee lied to police when he said no sexual contact had taken place, because he was scared.
Testing showed his DNA inside the victim and her DNA on his hands.
Sohriakoff told jurors they shouldn’t believe what Npimnee said in the recorded interviews with police, but they shouldn’t believe his accuser either.
“Therein lies the crux of this case,†he said.
On the other side, Reid said the only person lying here was Npimnee.
“Saying no is enough. No means no,†he said.
Testing showed Npimnee was the sober one. Hours later at a hospital, the woman’s blood-alcohol content still tested over the legal limit to drive.
“Why on earth does Mr. Npimnee think that he can take a stranger he just met to a dark, empty parking lot?†Reid asked. “It’s because he intended to have sex. And if she wouldn’t comply he would sexually assault her.â€
The jury of seven men and five women deliberated four hours Thursday before returning with a verdict: guilty to first-degree sexual assault.
Npimnee will face up to 50 years in prison at his sentencing next month.