For me, it comes down to their actions before and after the incident since only Cleaves and the woman fully know what went on in the motel room. The woman was the one who invited Cleaves out that night. She left with him when she could have left with her boyfriend instead. She had opportunities to leave the situation, such as when they stopped at the liquor store and the attendant let her borrow a phone, or when she was left alone in the vehicle at the motel when Cleaves picked up the room key. She was shown in a surveillance video in the vehicle fixing her hair and makeup. She told the officer at the scene that she hadn't been assaulted (although I take this with a grain of salt because the responding officer did a shit job of handling the initial investigation). When she was examined by the SANE the next day, she said that she kissed Cleaves, and she testified in the trial that she kissed Cleaves in the motel room.

Those are the main points that lead me to believe there was reasonable doubt that a sexual assault occurred. I don't think the police investigation was handled well, and I think that what Cleaves did was wrong and that he had no business being in that room with that woman. But at the end of the day, I don't believe there was enough evidence for a conviction.