SAN DIEGO — Former San Diego State football player Nowlin Ewaliko was arraigned in court Thursday, pleading not guilty to felony possession of child pornography.

If convicted, the 20-year-old Ewaliko faces a maximum of three years in state prison and registering as a sex offender for life.

The Washington state native, who was a freshman defensive lineman at SDSU, is one of three former Aztec football players investigated for the alleged rape of a 17-year-old girl at an off-campus house party in 2021.

In December, the district attorney’s office said it would not move forward with criminal charges against the players, in regard to the alleged assault.

Also last week, ten search warrants related to the investigation were unsealed.

Court documents reveal investigators gathered several terabytes of digital evidence from cell phones, videos, emails, text messages and social media.

According to documents, San Diego Police Department Sex Crimes Unit detectives discovered child porn on Ewaliko’s cell phone.

Deputy District Attorney Franciesca Balerio says there is no specific alleged victim in this case.

“Our office as well as the San Diego internet crimes against children task force take these crimes very seriously. The internet has provided sexual offenders with a virtually anonymous platform to commit some of the most heinous crimes against children including the creation possession and distribution of child pornography,” Balerio said.

Ewaliko turned himself into authorities last week and posted a $200,000 bond. But in court, a condition was set for his release.

“A police officer or law enforcement… they can ask him for his phone or computer and they don’t have to get a warrant to search it, so if he’s not committing any crimes it’s not really an issue and that’s not going to be an issue for us, which is why there was no real objection to it,” Ewaliko’s attorney Marc Carlos said.

Carlos says he’s not yet received full discovery from prosecutors and also pointed out his client has no criminal history.

“I need to see what was actually downloaded, how it was downloaded from, what phones and who had maybe had access to it, so that’s one of the things that I need to do as an attorney,” Carlos said. “He had to leave san diego state he is working on putting himself back together again getting back into school really getting his life back on track.”

Ewaliko’s due back in court May 18 with a preliminary hearing set for June 19.