“He told me he was going to kill me if I screamed again,” a shaken Kansas City, Missouri, woman on the witness stand Monday recalled her rapist telling her on that fateful day in Bimini four years ago.
Fredrick Francis, 23, is on trial in a Freeport Supreme Court before Justice Stephen Isaacs for the rape of a U.S. visitor on January 29, 2002.
Prosecutor SandraDee Gardiner is appearing on behalf of The Crown while Attorney Simeon Brown represents the defence.
The vacationer, four other girlfriends and a mailboat helper had left their pleasure boat off Bimini, gone ashore on a dinghy boat around 4:00 p.m. and had set up camp on an area on what they believed was a deserted island.
The key witness told the court on the first day of trial Monday that they were enjoying a relaxing afternoon, walking along the beach and picking up shells.
The six-man, six-woman jury heard that the woman was about a half a mile away from her friends and had decided to walk back when she saw the accused walking towards her.
She said he asked her several questions about the boat, which she answered but couldn’t understand why he was interested.
With each question, the witness said, the man’s voice got lower as he drew nearer.
Then she said he asked her if she knew about gardens on the island, but she didn’t and he questioned if anyone else was around.
She said the conversation could not have been any longer than a minute or two when she decided to return to her friends. But as she turned he grabbed her hand violently.
“I was so shocked, he said, ‘No, stay with me.’ I started screaming,” the woman remembered.
That’s when she said the man put his over her nose and mouth and she realized that her friends were so far away.
The woman remembered wanting to scream, not being able to breathe and releasing the shells out of her hand as her attacker was dragging her across the road into a dark forest area.
After taking a moment in court and requesting a drink of water Monday, the woman continued, telling the court that she also remembered having her sunglasses in her hand and decided to dump them in the road so her friends could find her.
She said before he removed his hand from her mouth, the man told her he was going to kill her if she screamed again.
Then he said, “I want to see it,” she said, adding that at first she didn’t know what he meant but understood when he said it a second time.
After she refused, the woman told the court that the man pushed her back and raped her.
The whole time, she said, she was telling him that she was a mother and had a son, in hopes he would not kill her.
The witness remembered hearing people yelling and realized they were yelling after him to get off her and when her rapist jumped up and ran away with his pants down.
She said she got up and ran towards her friends, the whole time letting out all of the screams she had been holding in.
The Missouri woman also told the court that while at the clinic the doctor was mad at her for not having any underpants on and, after he kept making jokes about her to the nurse, she got up and walked out.
Under cross-examination by defence attorney Brown, she revealed that she never pointed out to police the man who raped her and the first time she saw the accused was in the precincts of a court.
The court heard testimony from the man who was on the beach with the group of females and scared the rapist away and one of the friends of the victim who comforted her.
The Washington, Ohio man who worked on the boat, told the court that when he heard the screams he initially thought they were that of children.
But has he walked closer, he realized they were coming from one of the women out of the group who was some 15 to 20 feet into a brush and he.
“I went running towards him with a knife. He ran away as soon as he noticed me,” the Ohio man remembered.
He said he helped the frightened woman back to the beach and managed to flag down a man in a truck who took him to the police station.
Detective Corporal Martin Roberts was attached to the Alice Town, Police Station in Bimini four years ago and was one of four officers first on the scene.
He told the court yesterday that he went to the Bimini Bay area where he spoke to three individuals before making his way down to Government Clinic in Porgy Bay.
Det. Cpl. Roberts revealed that while outside the government clinic he observed a car passing and when he and other officers stopped the car, Francis was seated in the back with his mother and sister. He testified that that was when Francis was told that he was under arrest. To which the suspect replied, “y’all mussy see me.”
Det. Cpl. Roberts described the victim as distraught and distressed and said he had collected a sex kit from the nurse after the doctor had examined the victim, but there was no blood or rectal sample because she said the doctor was rude to her. He had also collected the victim’s pants and underwear from the nurse which were exhibited in court.
But, Defence Attorney Simeon Brown objected to the skirt being exhibited, stating that there was no marking on the skirt and the bag could have been tampered with.
When Prosecutor Gardiner asked the witness if the package was sealed, he could not recall. Brown then argued that it was The Crown’s duty to ensure that the integrity of the exhibit is secured, adding that The Crown’s witness didn’t even recall whether it was sealed.
In the absence of any markings or a tag, attorney Brown pointed out that the was nothing to say that the item being exhibited in court was the item the witness collected.
Justice Isaacs accepted the defence’s argument that there was the possibility of a breach in the chain of possession.
By LEDEDRA MARCHE, Senior FN Reporter
