College football player raped teen on Carnival Cruise

A college football player with a history of sexual assault raped a 17-year-old girl aboard a Carnival Cruise ship as she was celebrating the holidays with her family — before heartlessly asking, “You Good?”

James Thomas Kelley, now 22, was found guilty of aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse and assault in connection to the incident aboard the Carnival Legend between Jan. 1 and Jan. 2, 2023, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland said.

The running back for Wingate University had already been convicted of sexual assault as a minor in 2019 — and jurors heard testimony from six people accusing him of other sexual assaults, including when he was already being investigated by the FBI for the cruise rape.

In that case, he “forcibly raped” the teen after taking her back to his cabin when she needed a restroom — then pushed her “face first” onto the bed and raped her, prosecutors said.

But he “saw that (she) was intoxicated (by his own admission), realized she was vulnerable” and “took full advantage of the situation,” prosecutors wrote in court documents obtained by The State.

“After raping (her), Kelley asked, ‘You good?’” the docs said.

Kelley denied raping the teen when FBI agents visited him at the college in April 2023, prosecutors said.

But after the feds arrested him at the university in September 2023 a student came forward and reported that Kelley had also raped her, prosecutors said.

As of November 2023, there was an outstanding arrest warrant for Kelley for second-degree forcible rape in connection with that victim, according to court documents.

During his two-week-long trial, jurors heard testimony from six people who accused Kelley of sexually assaulting them on different occasions, including while the FBI was investigating him following the cruise, prosecutors said.

He was also convicted as a minor in a 2019 sexual assault case, prosecutors said.

“Kelley has an alarming history of allegations of sexual assault from males and females spanning from early 2017 through September 2023,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.

Kelley faces up to life in prison in the federal case, according to the US Attorney’s Office.