‘I’d rather die than let you do this,’ woman testifies in accused rapist’s trial

Young women terrorized by a serial rapist who put the city on edge in spring 2015 took the witness stand Tuesday.

Darrell Aundray Ross, 31, of Fort Valley — accused of a string of sexual assaults and home invasions — is on trial at the Peach County Courthouse.

One of the victims recounted an April incident in which she and one of her roommates had fallen asleep on couches in the living room.

She awoke and saw a man dressed all in black with his face covered. Her roommate was asleep but also woke up as the victim was being forced at gunpoint out the front door.

Her attacker took her to the back of a vacant apartment across the street and attempted to rape her, ordering her to pull her shorts down and threatening to stun her with a stun gun.

“I’d rather die than let you do this,” the woman testified she told the attacker before managing to break free and run away.

Another woman testified how she awoke in her bedroom to find an armed man dressed in dark clothing who put a gun to her head, threatened to shoot her if she said anything and sexually assaulted her. She was able to fight him off and force him out of her bedroom.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Bobbitt detailed the assaults for jurors, including those of two other women who she said were raped by their attacker.

All the women when assaulted were students at Fort Valley State University, where they had come to “follow their dreams,” Bobbitt said.

“One night for each of these girls changed their plans, their dreams, their careers ... what happened to them was a nightmare,” Bobbitt told jurors.

Bobbitt also promised jurors that the evidence she said authorities have against Ross will show that he is the man who assaulted the women.

That evidence includes a pair of pink handcuffs used in one of the rapes that were found on Ross when he was arrested, along with condoms, a BB gun that looks like a real pistol, gloves, a flash light, a screwdriver and a wrench, Bobbitt said.

Ross was arrested May 16 after another man confronted Ross when he saw him behind a Fort Valley apartment with a flashlight at 11 p.m. He detained Ross and called 911, Bobbitt said. Although it was hot outside, Ross was dressed like it was winter in zip-up jacket and big heavy pants in which he stuffed the handcuffs and other things, Bobbitt said.

“He was out there prowling about looking for his next victim,” Bobbitt said.

But Ross’ defense attorney Alan Wheeler told jurors that by the end of the trial they’d have “more resonable doubt ... that you will not find Darrell Ross guilty.”

Walker asked jurors to pay careful attention to the victims’ description of their attacker. He said most would say he had dreadlocks, which Ross did not, or that he was dark and not light skinned.

How the women described “physical characteristics don’t fit Darrell Ross,” Wheeler told jurors.

Wheeler also told jurors they would hear during the course of the trial why Ross had the pink handcuffs and why he had some of the victims’ belongings at his home.

“What is critical is where he got them,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler also told jurors that matching DNA evidence is not a sure thing and those who work in the public arena may have “incidental contact” with someone’s DNA that could remain under their fingernails for weeks.

Testimony is expected to continue Wednesday in the trial before Superior Court Judge David Mincey of the Macon Judicial Circuit, which includes Peach County.

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated the incorrect age of Darrell Ross.

This story was originally published August 29, 2017 at 1:01 PM with the headline "‘I’d rather die than let you do this,’ woman testifies in accused rapist’s trial."