Sylvester Walker, a 27-year-old Mississippi truck driver, walked away free from a Brigham City courtroom Thursday afternoon after he was found not guilty of aggravated sexual assault.
The charge stemmed from an incident in which a woman hitchhiker told police Walker had demanded sex from her at gunpoint. She said she jumped from the moving truck to escape.But at the conclusion of a non-jury trial, 1st District Judge Gordon Low said there were so many inconsistencies in testimony that he did not believe the state could prove its case.
The charge involved a Sept. 15 incident on I-15 south of the Perry weigh station, where the 35-year-old woman was found wandering by the roadside. She spent two days in a Brigham City hospital with a broken collar bone.
Walker was arrested the following day in Laramie, Wyo., based on the woman's description of her alleged assailant.
Walker testified that he had been approached by the woman at a Boise truck stop and had agreed to give her a ride.
Walker said the woman had offered sex for money, and he had refused. The woman then jumped from truck.