Six Kentucky football players charged with first-degree burglary will face grand jury

Six Kentucky football players charged with first-degree burglary — RJ Adams, JuTahn McClain, Andru Phillips, Earnest Sanders, Joel Williams and Vito Tisdale — waived their right to a preliminary hearing in Fayette District Court, moving the case to a grand jury, Kentucky Sports Radio reported Wednesday.

All six Kentucky football players pled not guilty to the charges at Friday’s arrangement, according to KSR.

Preliminary hearings offer an opportunity for defendants to argue the merits of their case in a public court of law. Now, as the Kentucky student-athletes move to a grand jury, they’ll fight their case behind closed doors.

The prosecutors could take up to 60 days to establish a case, and if there’s enough evidence to convince nine of 12 jurors, the grand jury will hand down an indictment. Following indictment, the case will proceed to trial.

If the jury feels that the evidence presented is insufficient to make an indictment, the case will be dismissed.

Alleged crime of Kentucky players

Kentucky Sports Radio first reported that the six Kentucky football players — Adams, McClain, Phillips, Sanders, Williams and Tisdale — were charged with first-degree burglary in an incident at an off-campus fraternity party on March 6.

Three players were asked to leave a party hosted by Alpha Sigma Phi, according to charging documents obtained by KSR on Aug. 19. After leaving, they returned with three more players and forced their way into the home.

All six received first-degree burglary charges, and Tisdale received an additional wanton endangerment charge for allegedly wielding a firearm.

A “physical altercation” took place at the event, according to court records, and three students who say they attended the party spoke about the incident under anonymity. The students claimed to have seen the Kentucky players punch many others at the event.

Mark Stoops: ‘We have been aware of this matter’

Kentucky head football coach Mark Stoops released a statement after the charges were made, saying he has been aware of the incident since March.

““We have been aware of this matter since March, as we withheld the players from team activities while a student conduct review was held,” he said. “Based on the outcome of the review, the players returned to activity in June. We are evaluating the current situation as we receive more information.”

Stoops on Saturday confirmed to reporters that he has since pulled the six players out of practice as the case is under careful review.

“Anytime there are situations like that, we take it very seriously and we address it and we look at it,” he said. “We did. Is there new information that we don’t know about? I’m not sure. That’s what we have to look at, but they deserve an opportunity to defend themselves. We’ll let that process play out.”