A second day of testimony is expected to begin this morning at the Miller County courthouse in the trial of a Horatio, Ark., man accused of raping a woman he met at the Electric Cowboy nightclub in Texarkana, Ark., last year.
From there, the women traveled to the Electric Cowboy nightclub in Texarkana, Ark., arriving at around 9:30 p.m., the alleged victim said. The woman testified that in the club's parking lot she ran into a man she described as her deceased boyfriend's nephew-by-marriage and accepted an invitation from him and his wife to visit their home at a trailer park in Mandeville, Ark., at about 1:30 a.m. The alleged victim told the jury of six men and six women there wasn't room in the nephew's truck. She said Bevis offered to give her a ride and she accepted when the nephew gave her a nod.
The woman said Bevis drove to the wrong trailer park in Mandeville and told her he knew how to get to the correct one by taking back roads. But instead of the second trailer park, the woman said Bevis drove her to Mr. D's nightclub. The woman said she told Bevis she wanted to go to her friend's house and would wait for him in the car but he insisted she come inside with him.
James Dansby, whose uncle owns Mr. D's, testified that he was working security Halloween night when a man and woman he didn't know came to the door close to 4 a.m. Dansby said the woman asked if he could give her a ride home because she didn't feel safe with the man, Bevis, who had driven her there. Dansby said he told the woman he couldn't drive all the way to the Atlanta area but gave the woman his phone number so she could call him later to let him know she was home. Dansby said he walked the woman and man outside and watched as they drove away in a maroon Toyota truck with loud exhaust.
Uunder cross examination from Texarkana lawyer Kristian Young, the alleged victim testified that she gave Dansby her phone number and that she answered when her phone rang as she was being sexually assaulted with her body was half in and half out of the passenger side of Bevis' small pickup.
"I was screaming for my mom, my daddy and God," the woman testified during Mitchell's direct examination.
The woman said as they traveled down the road, she told Bevis, whom she had never met before that night, she told him she wanted him to take her "toward town." The woman said Bevis made lewd sexual remarks about having sex with her to which she replied, "No."
The woman testified Bevis pulled over on the side of the road in a dark and secluded area she believed was near some sort of electrical or telephonic transfer station. She said Bevis got out of the truck and she was attempting to lock herself in when he opened the passenger door and began to assault her.
The woman said Bevis called her profane names, slapped her and choked her during the assault. The woman said Bevis pulled off her pants and boots and began to sexually assault her as her body hung part-way out of the truck. The woman said she remembers grabbing her phone, which was on the dashboard of the truck, when it lit up because of an incoming call. She said the caller was Dansby and that she screamed that she was being beaten and raped before Bevis took away the phone.
Dansby testified he was driving to his Texarkana, Ark., home when his phone rang and the woman told him she'd been attacked and raped. Dansby testified he turned his Ford F-150 around and started heading to where he thought the woman might be.
The woman said Bevis became enraged when she kicked him backward, and he pulled her all the way out of the truck and continued to assault her on the ground. The woman testified Bevis fled, leaving behind his shirt and belt, after she managed the phone contact with Dansby.
Dansby testified he was driving along Highway 67 when he spotted the maroon Toyota from earlier in the night., It "came past me flying," Dansby said. He was already on the phone with an emergency dispatcher because of the woman's call and let them know he was following the maroon truck. Dansby followed the truck until it was pulled over by police in Ashdown, Ark.
Under cross examination from Young, the woman struggled to explain the differences in the accounts she and Dansby gave, leading the woman, who was often difficult to understand, to look down, cover her face and state, "I don't remember."
In response to Young's inquiries, the woman testified she consumed a beer at the Atlanta bar, and three Long Island ice-tea cocktails and two rum shots at the Electric Cowboy. The woman also listed four or five medications she was taking at the time.
"And all of those have a martini glass with a line through it on them, isn't that right," Young asked.
The alleged victim could not give a clear response to Young's questions about what happened during the time between the Electric Cowboy and the stop at Mr. D's.
After Young's questioning, Mitchell questioned the alleged victim again.
"But the one detail that has never changed is that he said he wanted sex and you told him no repeatedly," Mitchell asked.
The woman agreed and testified that she has not "gone out" much since her boyfriend was killed in a motorcycle wreck in September 2014, an event that left her in need of medication for seizures. She said she told Bevis she was "not ready" when he first mentioned intimate contact.
Ashdown police officer Casey Flemming testified he and his captain were notified that a truck wanted in connection with a sexual assault might be heading their way in the early hours of Nov. 1, 2015. Flemming said the two lawmen positioned themselves along the road into Ashdown and initiated a traffic stop when a maroon Toyota matching the description they'd been given passed them.
Flemming testified Bevis was arrested for driving while intoxicated with a .09 blood-alcohol level. Flemming said he had been alerted that a woman might be in the truck who had been assaulted and was being held against her will. He said Bevis provided an approximate location of where the woman would be in Mandeville, "and then changed his story and said he'd dropped her off near the Electric Cowboy."
Late in the afternoon Tuesday, the jury heard testimony from Brandy Wilson, a registered nurse who is certified to perform sexual assault examinations at CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System in Texarkana. Wilson testified that the alleged victim had tears to her vagina and rectum as well as bruising and trauma to her face, arms and legs.
Other witnesses included Les Colley, a Texarkana, Ark., police officer who searched for and found the alleged victim on the side of Mandeville Road in Miller County wearing a skeleton costume shortly before 6 a.m. Nov. 1. Colley said he was told to hunt for a woman who was naked and bleeding.
Colley said the woman pointed him to a man's shirt and a belt with the letter "B" for a buckle on the ground.
"I told her not to touch it," Colley said.
Flemming testified Bevis was not wearing a shirt or a belt and that the top button of his pants was open when he arrested him in Ashdown.
Testimony in the case is expected to continue this morning. Bevis faces ten to 40 years or life in an Arkansas prison if found guilty of rape.