STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — A 16-year-old girl who prosecutors say was raped by two high school football stars here last August after a night of drinking took the witness stand on Saturday and told a judge that she had no memory of a six-hour period during which each of the teenagers is said to have assaulted her.
The trial abruptly ended Saturday night after the girl's testimony, and Tom Lipps, the juvenile court judge who is hearing the case, said he would issue a verdict at 10 a.m. on Sunday.
The case has shaken Steubenville and drawn national attention for how it played out in text messages and social media.
The girl's testimony capped four days of evidence presented by prosecutors, who have charged the football players — Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'lik Richmond, 16 — and accused them of penetrating her with their fingers. According to Ohio law, the definition of rape includes digital penetration.
The case deeply divided the town, whose powerhouse Steubenville High School football team has been a source of pride amid gloomy economic conditions.
Mr. Mays and Mr. Richmond were rising stars in the football program, and some Steubenville residents have complained about a culture that protects the team. Others say the girl, her supporters and the news media have blown the episode out of proportion. Lawyers for the two boys, who could be sent to juvenile jail until they are 21 if they are found guilty, have denied the charges and said that any sex was consensual.
The girl testified Saturday that after leaving a party around midnight on Aug. 11 with the two football players, she woke up the next morning in the basement living room of another house. She was naked, she recalled, with no idea how she got there or where she was, and Mr. Mays, Mr. Richmond and another boy were surrounding her. The girl said that the boys put her clothes on a table, but she could not find her phone, her underwear, her earrings or her shoes.
"I was embarrassed and scared, and I did not know what to think because I could not remember anything," she testified. She said that over the next two days she pieced together what had happened with the help of friends who showed her a video posted on YouTube and a picture that had circulated of her in the basement lying naked.
Earlier on Saturday, two former friends of the girl testified for the defense that she had a reputation as a liar. An expert defense witness also testified that the girl was not likely to have consumed enough alcohol to pass out that night but that she did drink enough to have a memory lapse, implying she could have consented to having sex but did not remember doing so.
On Friday, one friend and classmate testified that he saw Mr. Mays penetrate the girl with his fingers in the back seat of a car, while another student testified that Mr. Richmond did the same while she was in the basement. Both students testified after being granted immunity from prosecution.
When it was her turn on the witness stand, the girl, guided by the prosecutor Marianne Hemmeter, testified for two hours about how she discovered how she was treated that night, and how she came to figure out that Mr. Mays was only pretending to care about her in an effort to try to save himself.
She said an increasingly frantic Mr. Mays repeatedly sent her text messages the next day, pleading with her not to press charges and saying that he feared his football career would be hurt.
"He was just, like, freaking out," the girl testified Saturday. "He kept asking, 'Are you going to tell the police?' He was trying to get me not to tell anyone."
In one text message, she said, Mr. Mays admitted taking the picture of her naked in the basement but said that he did not know how the photograph had been circulated. He said the picture showed his semen on top of her, the result of what he said had been a consensual sexual act.
At one point, Mr. Mays, who maintained that he had taken care of the girl while she was drunk, appeared to grow increasingly frustrated that she refused to reassure him. He told her in a text message, "I'll just never do anything nice for you again."
Later, in the final series of text messages they ever exchanged, Mr. Mays told her, "I'm about to get kicked off my football team."
The girl replied: "The more you bring up football, the more pissed I get, because that's like all you care about."
Mr. Mays texted back: "You know that's not all I care about, but that needs to be taken care of first."
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