Trial Is Set in Case Involving SDSU’s Maultsby

A San Diego State football player and a companion Friday were ordered to stand trial on charges of assaulting the player’s roommate and forcing him to withdraw $400 from automatic teller machines.

Municipal Court Judge Robert J. Cooney scheduled a March 18 trial date for Kevin Maultsby and Manuel Shute Jr. in connection with the alleged Dec. 11 incident with Maultsby’s then-roommate, Mark Sievers.

Maultsby played defensive end and linebacker as a junior last season, starting four games. He is 6-feet 5-inches tall and weighs 230 pounds. Aztec Coach Denny Stolz has said he will withhold any punitive action pending the outcome of court proceedings.

Both defendants are charged with single counts of assault, robbery, false imprisonment and kidnapping for robbery.

Sievers testified during the two-day preliminary hearing that the defendants confronted him in his campus apartment, demanding money for a ring stolen from Maultsby.

Sievers said Shute punched him in the side of the face when he refused to pay, saying he didn’t know anything about the ring. The defendants then forced him to get both of his automatic teller cards and drove him to machines where he withdrew $200 each time, Sievers testified.

“I got the money out of the machine and (both times) Kevin grabbed it out of my hand,” he said. “They already had beat me up once, and I didn’t want them to again.”

Dr. Joe Fiore, the Alvarado Medical Center emergency room doctor who treated Sievers that night, testified for the defense that the victim had a cut lip, several facial cuts and one loose tooth from being hit with a fist.

Cooney rejected a defense request to dismiss all charges after Sievers admitted that he never resisted nor asked anyone for help.

“The mere fact that he gave (the money) up under force or fear is sufficient” reason to order a Superior Court trial, Cooney said.