Charleston, W.Va. – Amended charges were filed Tuesday against five of six white defendants accused of torturing a black woman for days in rural West Virginia, the details of which were described for the first time.
Carmen Williams, the woman’s mother, left a hearing in Logan County Magistrate Court in tears after listening to the allegations.
Magistrate Jeffrey Lane referred the case against Frankie Brewster, 49, to a grand jury for action. She owns the home where the suspected assault took place. In addition to charges of kidnapping, sexual assault and giving false information to police, the prosecutor filed three counts of misdemeanor battery against Brewster.
The six people charged, all of them white, are accused of assaulting Megan Williams, who is black, for more than a week at a trailer in Big Creek.
Police say Williams, 20, was tortured, sexually assaulted, forced to eat animal feces and taunted with racial slurs. An anonymous tip led police to the home Sept. 8.
The Associated Press generally does not identify suspected victims of sexual assault, but Williams and her mother agreed to release her name.
Reading from a statement Williams gave deputies that day, Sheriff’s Deputy Jeffrey Robinette said Williams had been stabbed with what she described as a butcher knife, beaten with wooden sticks and fly swatters, sexually assaulted, doused with hot water, and taunted with racial slurs.
Goodman testified that Brewster told deputies that the six talked about killing Williams.
Danny J. Combs, 20, now faces a kidnapping charge that carries life in prison. He originally was charged with sexual assault and malicious wounding. Prosecutors added two more sexual assault charges.
Kidnapping and sexual assault charges, along with additional counts of battery, were filed against Karen Burton, 46, her daughter, Alisha; and George A. Messer, 27.
Brewster’s son, Bobby, 24, is charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, malicious wounding and assault during the commission of a felony.
