Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 28, 1994 TAG: 9407280080
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Prosecutor Ann Gardner said the rape was the culmination of two weeks of constant fear for the woman, who had been assaulted twice before by the husband she left in January.
"It's kind of pathetic when someone has to put up with what she did," Gardner said. "She was terrorized."
The man also pleaded no contest Wednesday to wounding his wife and waving a gun in her face Feb. 3; in March he was found guilty of a misdemeanor charge of wounding the woman Feb. 12.
Their names are being withheld to protect the identity of the woman.
Sobbing throughout her testimony, the 26-year-old woman told Roanoke Circuit Judge Diane Strickland she was staying with her new boyfriend in a house on Broadway Avenue Southwest when the rape occurred.
The woman said she was still in bed just after 10 a.m. when she heard a door opening and thought it was her boyfriend.
Her husband walked in, holding a pistol. He told the woman that the phone lines had been cut.
"Then he punched me in the eye, and I fell back," she said.
He ordered her to stand, ripped off her panties and put handcuffs around her wrists.
"He said I was still his wife and he would do what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it," she testified.
The woman said the man then forced her to have sexual relations with him. She said her husband then started talking about why he should just kill her and asking her to move back in with him.
"The only way that I could get him to leave is to tell him I still love him and that I would go home," she said.
The man, who appeared in court wearing jail coveralls, will be sentenced Sept. 9. He faces life plus 29 years in prison.
Gardner said the defendant in this case was out of jail on bond for the assault charges when he raped his wife.
The assistant commonwealth's attorney said marital rapes aren't uncommon, but many victims choose not to pursue the cases for fear of testifying against someone they know so well.
"She is very brave," Gardner said.
by CNB