Woman arrested on multiple sex charges after alleged rape at Columbus hotel, officials say

A 41-year-old Columbus woman is accused of joining a man in sexually assaulting another woman last month at a Columbus motel, according to police testimony.

Samara Culpepper faced six felony charges Friday in Columbus Recorder’s Court including rape, aggravated sex battery, aggravated sodomy, false imprisonment and possession of a schedule II controlled substance (ecstasy), all related to an incident that happened between Dec. 19 and Dec. 20 at the Budgetel Inn and Suites, 3170 Victory Drive.

According to Detective Virginia Duncan, investigators with the police department’s special victims unit were dispatched to St. Francis Hospital at 12:30 p.m. Dec. 20 to talk with the victim, who reported that Culpepper the day before had asked her to pick up a man from the Budgetel hotel, where she was staying, and take him back to his house.

The victim told police this was not unusual because she and Culpepper had been working together in Phenix City for over a year, and she would often help Culpepper with such requests.

After she took the man home, she got a 11:11 p.m. text message from Culpepper, who said she was frightened because a man she knew was coming to the hotel, and she wanted the victim to come back.

The victim returned to the Budgetel because she knew the man to be violent and to carry a gun, Duncan said. When she got back around midnight, she decided to stay overnight with the man and Culpepper, because it was so late.

Culpepper and the man were drinking alcohol and took some sort of pill, likely the drug ecstasy, but the victim declined to partake, and eventually decided to go to sleep while Culpepper and the man had sex in another bed in the room, Duncan said.

Later that night, Culpepper came over the victim’s bed and began touching her, telling her to “just go with the flow,” Duncan testified. Culpepper then forced oral sex on her as the victim tried to fight her off, Duncan said.

Later the man also assaulted the victim, forcing a finger inside her and repeatedly trying to penetrate her vaginally and anally, Duncan said. The victim, who wasn’t sure whether the man used a condom, told police Culpepper watched them while smoking a cigarette.

The assault lasted around an hour before the victim finally left at 3 a.m. Dec. 20, about two hours before Culpepper started texting the victim to apologize, Duncan said.

Police later served a search warrant at the hotel room, finding ecstasy pills, cigarettes and other evidence, Duncan said. Officers on Jan. 15 arrested Culpepper on a charge of possession, manufacture and distribution of a controlled substance.

When police asked Culpepper about the alleged assault, Culpepper initially was reluctant to talk about it, but eventually did, Duncan said.

Police did not return phone calls from the Ledger-Enquirer asking whether the man also will face charges in the case.

Culpepper’s case was bound over to Muscogee Superior Court, where a judge may set a bond allowing her release from jail. She has been ordered to have no further contact with the victim.