After more than 45 hours of deliberations over the course of four days, an Oklahoma City jury has found former Oklahoma City Police Officer Daniel Holtzclaw guilty of 18 of the 36 charges against him.
As previously reported by The Root, Holtzclaw was arrested last August amid accusations that he had raped 12 black women and one underage black girl. The initial 16 charges included four counts of forcible oral sodomy, two counts of first-degree rape, four counts of sexual battery, four counts of indecent exposure, one count of first-degree burglary and one count of stalking. As more alleged victims came forward, the number of charges ballooned to 36.
Holtzclaw was found guilty Thursday night on 18 charges, including four charges of rape, one of rape by instrumentation, six of sexual battery, four of forcible oral sodomy and three of procuring lewd exhibition. He was found guilty of all charges for five women and the child, some of the charges for two women and none of the charges for the other five women.
BuzzFeed's Jessica Testa reports that Holtzclaw was found "not guilty of a handful of the lesser charges, including two rape charges, one rape by instrumentation charge, four sexual battery charges, three forcible oral sodomy charges, five procuring lewd exhibition charges, and one charge each of burglary, stalking and indecent exposure."
Holtzclaw rocked back and forth as he waited for the verdicts to come in and broke down sobbing once the first guilty verdict was read. As he was led from the courtroom, he reportedly screamed, "I didn't do it!"
Some of the women also have civil suits pending against Holtzclaw.
Sentencing in this criminal case is set for Jan. 21.
Holtzclaw was found guilty on his 29th birthday.
Editor’s note: This is a developing story. Check back in with The Root for updates.