An 18-year-old JROTC student from Spanaway admitted to holding down a fellow student and raping her while a group stayed overnight at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, according to a special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Prosecutors charged the student, Daniel Mullen, in Island County Superior Court July 21 with third-degree rape.

NCIS Special Agent Jared Warner wrote that a group of students from Spanaway High School, as well as adult leaders, stayed at the bachelor officers’ quarters on base March 4. They were taking part in a Navy Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps competition at Oak Harbor High School.

A 17-year-old student reported that Mullen sexually assaulted her when she was in his room, the report states. Warner wrote that the girl struggled against Mullen and repeatedly told him “no” when he pinned her to the bed, pulled off her sweatpants and sexually assaulted her.

The alleged assault ended abruptly when another ROTC student knocked on the door, Warner wrote. The victim said she opened the door, grabbed the other student by the arm and left.

Warner interviewed Mullen the morning of the assault at the NCIS office. Warner wrote that Mullen “admitted culpability” for the rape and admitted that the girl “verbally and physically tried to stop him.”

The charging document defines third-degree rape as “lack of consent” and states that the victim “did not consent to the sexual intercourse and such lack of consent was clearly expressed by (her) words of conduct.”

Mullen could face between six months and a year in jail if convicted of the charge, plus he would have to register as a sex offender.