Police: Naked woman escapes sex assault when child interrupts, asks for juice

Witnesses told police De’Quandre Roberts acted like a man “possessed” the night he got drunk and beat and sexually assaulted a woman before she ran naked to a neighbor’s home at Columbus’ Whisperwood Apartments.

The woman later told police she escaped from Roberts about 2 a.m. Nov. 13 when her young daughter awoke and interrupted the attack by asking for a box of juice. The first thing the victim told officers arriving at the apartment complex was that she needed to get back home, because her children still were there.

Roberts, 23, was in Columbus Recorder’s Court on Wednesday morning, facing charges of sexual battery, battery with physical harm and false imprisonment.

Officers testified Roberts and the woman were playing cards with friends that night when he began drinking heavily and tried to get the woman to go back into a bedroom with him. He became enraged when she refused, and ordered the other guests to leave, police said.

He then tried to rip her clothes off, grabbing her breasts and buttocks and pressing her by the neck against a couch, she told investigators. She tried to run to the door, but he caught her, bit the right side of her face and dragged her into a laundry room, where he slammed her head against a washing machine, leaving strands of her hair there.

He got her pants off and starting having sex with her, though she complained she needed to use the restroom, she told police. He snatched off a tank top she was wearing, leaving her nude, she said.

She said Roberts told her he knew he was going to jail, and he was going to kill her. She also told police the pair had been having sex “all weekend,” an officer testified.

Asked for his account, Roberts told police “it was all a blur,” the officer said, and claimed the woman was naked because she had been trying to entice him by stripping and licking her lips.

Attorneys asked why Roberts wasn’t charged with rape, under the circumstances.

The woman refused to submit to an examination to collect evidence for a rape kit, the officer said: “She was not concerned about the sex,” he said. “She did not resist.” She was upset because of the abuse, saying Roberts “never acted this way before,” he said.

Judge Julius Hunter set Roberts’ bonds at $30,000 for false imprisonment and $5,000 each for sexual battery and battery with physical harm. He ordered Roberts to have no contact with the woman if released on bond, and found probable cause to send the case on to Muscogee Superior Court.

The victim was not present in court Wednesday.

This story was originally published November 22, 2017 at 3:40 PM with the headline "Police: Naked woman escapes sex assault when child interrupts, asks for juice."