There were days when Detective Chad Gish didn't think he would find it even though thumbnails on Brandon Vandenburg's iPhone proved to him it existed, video of a young woman being raped inside Gillette Hall but on a warm July day in California he found the evidence that would shock even the most seasoned officers.
Jurors saw the video for the first time on Wednesday, the same day Brandon Vandenburg turned 23-years-old.
"The images had been deleted from Mr. Vandenburg's phone he couldn't delete the thumbnails," Detective Gish explained to the jury.
After seizing the former Vandy football players phone as evidence, Detective Gish managed to find thumbnails of the victim being raped by members of the Vanderbilt Football team. The thumbnails also suggested to Detective Gish that video of rape was also taken.
"These images were nine images taken from Vandenburg's cell phone," he said in court Wednesday.
"This appears to be the victim laying down on the hallway, her skirt and panties have been removed, there's a plate of food sitting down next to her left knee," he added as he described the pictures being shown only to jurors and attorneys.
Detective Gish would later travel to California where he found the graphic video on a computer belonging to one of Vandenburg's friends.
Courtroom 5A was mostly silent as the graphic pictures were projected on a large television screen. Vandenburg seemed uncomfortable throughout the testimony, spinning a pencil through his thumb and index finger. Jurors appeared attentive and alert as they watched frame by frame as the young female student was raped.
In the video clip Vandenburg could be heard laughing loudly and saying "Squeeze that sh--, squeeze that sh--. Bro you ain't even hard bro," all as the victim lay unconscious on the cold tile floor of room 213 inside Gillette Hall.
"That's the victim laying down near the elevator of Gillette Hall," Detective Gish added.
Jurors also heard a taped interrogation of the 22-year-old, recorded in his first interview with police after the alleged rape occurred. In the recordings he appears to admit he knew something had happened to the young woman.
"I sat there and I saw it happening and I didn't tell them to stop," Vandenburg could be heard saying in the tapes.
Testimony continues on Thursday morning - the victim is expected to take the stand at some point during the day.
