More details emerge in W.Va. torture case

Tom Breen and Shaya Tayefe Mohajer

LOGAN, W.Va. — The list of horrors allegedly endured by a woman at the hands of six people in a remote trailer grew during the suspects’ court hearings — leaving the woman’s mother sobbing.

Reading from a statement 20-year-old Megan Williams gave the day she was rescued from the ramshackle home, a sheriff’s deputy said last week she had been stabbed with what she described as a butcher knife and beaten with wooden sticks and fly swatters.

She said she was sexually assaulted, doused with hot water, forced to eat animal feces and taunted with racial slurs. Among the new allegations, she said hot wax was poured on her, and that two of her captors forced her to drink a cup of their urine.

Carmen Williams, the victim’s mother, left the preliminary hearing of one of the defendants in tears last Tuesday after listening to what her daughter allegedly experienced.

Charges against most of the six suspects were upgraded. All six, who are white, now face charges of kidnapping, which carries a maximum life sentence. Four of the defendants had faced lesser charges before last Tuesday’s filings.

Megan Williams’ statement said the defendants told her they did not like black people and that they were going to hang her.

“They told me if I tried to get out they was going to hit me and stuff. I was scared of them,” Logan County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeffrey Robinette read.

Some of Williams’ supporters have urged the state to file hate crime counts. Prosecutors have not ruled out such a move, but have said they are focused on crimes with the toughest penalties and note that the maximum sentence for a hate crime is 10 years.

The Associated Press generally does not identify suspected victims of sexual assault, but Williams and her mother agreed to release her name. Carmen Williams said she wanted people to know what her daughter had endured.

Megan Williams’ ordeal ended when an anonymous tip led police to the home Sept. 8. Deputies are still trying to determine how long Williams was held.
Kidnapping and sexual assault charges, along with additional counts of battery, were filed against Karen Burton, 46; her daughter, Alisha Burton, 23; and George A. Messer, 27, all of Chapmanville. They also face additional counts of battery.

Danny J. Combs, 20, of Harts, now faces a kidnapping charge that carries life in prison. He was originally charged with sexual assault and malicious wounding. Prosecutors added two more sexual assault charges, which each carry a maximum of 35 years in prison.

Three counts of misdemeanor battery were added to the charges against Frankie Brewster, who owns the home where the suspected assault took place. She is also charged with kidnapping, first-degree sexual assault and giving false information to police. An unlawful malicious wounding charge was dropped.

In a statement to deputies, Brewster detailed her role and implicated others, saying, “I just want to come clean.” Brewster is also accused of forcing Williams to perform oral sex on her.

A sixth defendant, Bobby Brewster, 24, who is the son of Frankie Brewster, is charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, malicious wounding and assault during the commission of a felony. Police have said he had a previous relationship with Williams.

Williams said in her statement that she was raped at knifepoint by Combs in the trailer’s bathroom, tied with a cable cord and choked by Karen Burton, doused with hot wax by Messer, and stabbed by Bobby Brewster.

Sheriff’s Deputy Rick Goodman testified last Tuesday that Brewster told deputies the six defendants were afraid to let Williams go because she might tell on them. They also talked about killing her.

Karen Burton, who was arraigned by video teleconference from jail, said, “Oh, hell no,” when informed of the sexual assault charge against her. The other defendants said only “yes, sir” and “no, sir” during their arraignments.

(Associated Press)