Ex-KU Jayhawk Silvio De Sousa’s not guilty verdict ignites emotions outside courtroom

Former Kansas basketball player De Sousa hugged attorney Hatem Chahine outside the Douglas County Law Enforcement Center on Thursday afternoon, smiling wide while asking him to pose for a picture.

De Sousa then outstretched his arms.

“Oh man, free,” he said. “God is great.”

Just a few minutes earlier, De Sousa was found not guilty Thursday by a Douglas County jury following his trial for felony battery.

“I just want to thank everybody that stayed with me along the way,” De Sousa said in an interview afterward. “I’m thankful. I’m thankful.”

De Sousa was charged with aggravated battery — a Level 5 felony — on Oct. 28. The alleged battery at Brother’s Bar & Grill in Lawrence on Jan. 1, 2020 took place nearly a year before De Sousa announced he was leaving the KU men’s basketball team.

The prosecution, during this week’s three-day trial, contended that De Sousa struck 32-year-old Shawnee native Grant Davis hard enough to result in Davis’ left eye blindness. Multiple witnesses testified Wednesday that De Sousa hit Davis with an open-handed swing. De Sousa then took the stand on his own behalf, saying he struck Davis once with an open palm but never touched Davis’ eye.

Douglas County Judge Sally Pokorny gave jurors four options before deliberations started around 10:45 a.m.:

• They could find De Sousa guilty of recklessly causing great bodily harm or disfigurement to another (Level 5 felony);

• They could find De Sousa guilty of recklessly causing bodily harm to another in any manner that might cause great bodily harm, disfigurement, or death (a lesser, Level 7 felony);

• They could find De Sousa guilty of battery (a Class B misdemeanor);

• They could find De Sousa not guilty.

The jury returned its not guilty verdict just after 1:30 p.m., which set off a wide range of emotions.

Just after Pokorny read the verdict, there were some gasps in the courtroom, including one from a member of De Sousa’s support group.

De Sousa became emotional after that, saying after he exited the courtroom, he cried in a subsequent meeting room with Chahine before FaceTiming his father to deliver the news.

Meanwhile, just outside that meeting room, members of Davis’ family approached a group of people who knew De Sousa in the hallway, yelling at them while angry about the verdict and De Sousa’s alleged involvement with Davis losing sight in his left eye. Davis’ family members eventually dispersed and walked out of the Law Enforcement Center before sheriffs made their way to the exchange.

Douglas County district attorney Suzanne Valdez released a statement after the three-day trial’s conclusion: “While we are disappointed in the verdict, this office respects the jury system and thanks them for their service.”

Earlier Thursday, both the prosecution and defense delivered closing arguments, with Douglas County deputy district attorney Joshua Seiden focusing on the difference between former KU softball teammates Macy Omli’s and Tarin Travieso’s Wednesday testimony.

Travieso — she was dating De Sousa at the time but testified that the two broke up a few months ago after she graduated from KU and moved back to her home state of Texas — said that Davis walked away from the incident with some redness on his cheek but “nothing crazy.” Omli, meanwhile, said that De Sousa approached Davis and landed an open-handed blow, which she said drew blood from Davis’ eye that rolled down his face.

Omli later testified she had ended communication with Travieso — her former roommate — “probably because of this case” and their now-conflicting accounts of what happened.

“She was dating (Silvio),” Omli said of Travieso on Wednesday. “We just didn’t have the same stories.”

Seiden closed his first statement by telling jurors to “use your common sense — and not your imaginations — to render a just verdict of guilty.”

Chahine centered his closing argument focus on Davis’ testimony. While on the stand Wednesday, Davis said he was punched by De Sousa before falling to the ground. Chahine emphasized no other witness statements backed Davis’ exact account, with those witnesses instead saying it was an open-handed slap with Davis never leaving his feet.

Chahine also attempted to re-focus jurors to De Sousa’s testimony from Wednesday and his assertion he used an up-and-down motion to make contact with Davis’ right cheek — and not Davis’ left eye.

“A slap to the face does not result in a loss of the eye,” Chahine told jurors.

Chahine said after the jury’s decision that he believed De Sousa’s testimony was important to the final outcome.

“Silvio is a fantastic human being. He was very consistent with what he (said he) did,” Chahine said. “I’m just glad that the jury saw that, and it really didn’t take that long for them to see through all the evidence.”

De Sousa, with Thursday’s resolution, is now free to continue his college basketball career. He put his name in the transfer portal this summer, and two weeks ago, he announced plans on social media to join Chattanooga’s basketball program next season.

“Next is really just trying to focus on basketball and just feeling love about this sport again,” De Sousa said. “Through all the years, I felt like my love for the sport was kind of fading, because I was never able to fully give it my all. But now, I’m really just into basketball, and that’s my next step at Chattanooga.”

When he last played at KU during the 2019-20 season, De Sousa averaged 2.6 points in 8.4 minutes per game. He and KU coach Bill Self announced on Oct. 16, 2020, that he was leaving KU’s team to focus on “personal issues.”

De Sousa said part of his feeling freedom following Thursday’s verdict was the ability to visit his family in Angola. He has not been back there in nearly four years, and he said his mother was previously hospitalized this summer with a heart attack.

“It’s a new start,” De Sousa said, ”and I just need to focus on what matters the most from now on.”