EVANSTON — An Evanston man, who was previously acquitted of felony first-degree sexual assault, was subsequently convicted of the same charge 16 months later following an unrelated criminal case and trial.
Jaylond Labaki, 25, was found guilty by a jury in Third District Court on Thursday, July 30.
Labaki’s most recent troubles began in April 2025 when a woman filed two reports of sexual assault by Labaki with the Evanston Police Department (EPD). The assaults dated back to February 2021 and May 2022, when the woman was still a minor and Labaki was an adult. She said she was asleep at his residence when each of the assaults began.
“I pretended to remain asleep,” the victim testified. “I was scared,” she said, recalling having been awakened to being sexually assaulted by Labaki in his bedroom when she was 16 years old and he was 19, in 2021.
The victim provided detectives with Snapchat screenshots from the day following that incident in which Labaki repeatedly apologized and said “I hate myself...” for what he had done to the woman.
Labaki’s defense attorney, James Sanderson of Afton, argued that the screenshots could not be authenticated because detectives never issued preservation letters to the social media platforms and cellphone companies involved.
The detective, however, testified that most social media platforms only retain records for as little as seven days and up to 90 days in some cases, and such records would be long gone three and four years after the assaults.
“Social media are hard to deal with from a law enforcement standpoint,” he said.
Despite falling out over the initial assault, the victim testified that she revisited her relationship with Labaki in spring 2022 because she “had a lot of care and trust for him,” she said. She also explained that he thoroughly apologized for the previous assault, said he would never hurt her, insisted he thought she was awake and “would enjoy it.”
“I trusted him again at this point,” she said.
The second alleged assault, she said, took place in a camper that was parked within Labaki’s shop garage. Sanderson led jurors through evidence of shop measurements after repeatedly and confusingly misidentifying which of Labaki’s three different camper models the assault allegedly occurred.
Sanderson also argued an inadequate investigation by the EPD in addition to a general lack of evidence in the case. During cross examination, Sanderson suggested the victim had been coached by Uinta County Attorney Loretta Howieson Kallas, but the victim testified she had not been.
Jay Parro, Labaki’s grandfather and defense witness, testified that, as the owner of the industrial-park property Labaki resided in, he’d visited frequently and the camper model identified by the victim could not fit inside the garage as she claimed. Parro also refuted the woman’s account regarding which bedroom on the premises was Labaki’s despite the woman and Labaki each identifying the same room to law enforcement.
Labaki was ultimately cleared of the camper assault charge.
“Her statements ... have never wavered, never changed,” Kallas said during her closing arguments.
Sanderson seemingly contradicted his own argument by acknowledging the victim must not have felt unsafe with his client as she spent time with him in 2021 and 2022 despite the jury viewing most of Labaki’s interview with an EPD detective in which he said, “I haven’t spoken to her since, haven’t seen her since,” his senior year of high school in 2020. “I don’t remember ever seeing her again,” Labaki said.
Labaki, who did not take the stand, also told the detective that the woman had never been to or inside his residence before.
“She was never there ... and no camper was parked inside my shop,” he said during the interview. The victim, however, provided law enforcement with detailed drawings and accurate descriptions of the inside of his residence.
Labaki is facing five to 50 years behind bars and/or $10,000 in fines. He was denied bond and remanded into custody at the Uinta County Detention Center. His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 2.
