Ex-NFL Star 'Took What He Wanted,' When He Raped Homeless Woman, Hitchhiker, Prosecutor Says

As the trial for former NFL pro Kellen Winslow Jr. proceeds, more details are being released about his alleged crimes, with prosecutors having detailed in court this week how Winslow raped numerous women.

Prosecutors claimed during opening statements Monday that Winslow, 35, raped a 54-year-old hitchhiker and a 59-year-old homeless woman, the Associated Press reports. He has also been charged with raping a 17-year-old girl in 2003, when he was a 19-year-old college student.

Prosecutor Dan Owens told the court that Winslow “took what he wanted,” according to USA Today.

“Kellen Winslow, the defendant in this case, has been given much, but it was not enough,” Owens said. “You will learn over the course over the next few weeks that Kellen Winslow took what he wanted. He took what he wanted not from one, not from two, but three women. He victimized five women, five separate women, who knew nothing of each other, who had never met one another, who were either complete and total strangers to Kellen Winslow or had only recently met him.”

Prosecutors say that Winslow befriended and sodomized a homeless woman in May 2018, months after they say he picked up a hitchhiker on March 17, 2018 and raped her in a parking lot. Winslow allegedly told the unnamed hitchhiker that he would kill her if she made any noise. When reporting the assault to the authorities four days later, the woman did not consent to an examination, but did provide investigators with the pants she was wearing at the time, which Owens said were stained with blood and had traces of Winslow’s DNA on them.

Winslow has been accused of a number of sex-related crimes over the past year, including exposing himself to a neighbor and breaking into the mobile homes of two different elderly women, with what prosecutors claim was the intent to rape them, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

Winslow, who could spend the rest of his life behind bars if convicted, has pleaded not guilty to 12 counts. He has maintained that the sex was consensual, and called the claims against him a “money grab” last year.

Winslow’s attorney, Brian Watkins, pointed to a “lack of evidence” on Monday linking his client to such crimes.

“It’s wrong. It’s immoral, but it is not illegal,” Watkins said of Winslow’s “cheating ways,” according to the Associated Press. The former tight end is married with children, and has the support of his wife, Janelle Winslow, as well as his father, NFL Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow.

“On behalf of our son and my husband, we want to reiterate our love, support and affection for him during this difficult process,” Janelle Winslow said in a statement obtained by the Union-Tribune in June. “We will always be there for him and we know the true facts will come out.”

Winslow’s trial, which is expected to last until June 20, will resume on Tuesday as witnesses take the stand to share their testimonies, according to USA Today.