Macon Telegraph Logo

Testimony begins in Bibb rape trial | Macon Telegraph

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • Customer Service
    • Mobile & Apps
    • Newsletters
    • Buy Photos and Pages
    • Contact Us
    • Newsletters
    • Subscribe
    • Archive Search

    • All News
    • Local
    • Houston & Peach
    • The Sun News
    • Crime
    • Food Story
    • Education
    • Databases
    • Business
    • Nation/World
    • Opinion
    • Weird News
    • All Sports
    • High Schools
    • University of Georgia
    • Bulldogs Beat
    • Georgia Tech
    • Mercer
    • Columns & Blogs
    • MLB & Braves
    • NFL & Falcons
    • NBA & Hawks
    • Auto Racing
    • Golf
    • NHL/Macon Mayhem
    • Politics
    • Elections
    • All Living
    • Family
    • Food
    • Home & Garden
    • Religion
    • Celebrations
    • Mark Ballard
    • Dear Abby
    • Entertainment
    • Out & About
    • Celebrities
    • Music
    • Restaurants
    • Comics
    • Puzzles & Games
    • Horoscopes
    • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Submit a Letter
    • Blogs & Columns
    • Opinion Columns & Blogs
    • Your Say
  • Obituaries
  • Education Together
  • Best of the Best

  • Classifieds
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Cars
  • Homes
  • Place An Ad
  • Contests

  • About Us
  • Mobile & Apps

News

Testimony begins in Bibb rape trial

By AMY LEIGH WOMACK - awomack@macon.com

    ORDER REPRINT →

August 11, 2010 12:00 AM

A Lizella woman had just dropped off her son at a school bus stop on the foggy morning of Dec. 19, 2008, when a man emerged from the inside of her car trunk, she said.

The man, 33-year-old Eric Demond Ussery, fought with the woman, threatened her with a handgun and raped her, she testified Tuesday in Bibb County Superior Court.

Ussery, of Macon, is charged with rape, kidnapping and family violence-aggravated assault, according to court records.

Sara Roberts, Ussery’s lawyer, told the jury in opening statements held Tuesday morning that the sex was consensual and injuries the woman sustained were from her car striking a manhole while she wasn’t wearing a seat belt.

SIGN UP

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to The Telegraph

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

Evidence at trial will show the hole leading from the trunk to the interior of the woman’s car measured 13 inches by 13 inches and the latch is located on the inside of the car, not inside the trunk, Roberts said.

The woman, 32, testified she met Ussery in the fourth grade and dated him through high school.

After graduation, the couple continued to date off and on. At times, the relationship was “rocky” and violent, she said.

The relationship ended sometime before the birth of their second son in 1999. Although the romance rekindled in 2005 and 2006, the couple didn’t “get back together,” the woman testified.

In the months leading up to the December 2008 assault, the woman filed for a restraining order, she said.

But after leaving her job as a corrections officer, the woman agreed in fall 2008 to take Ussery to work if he’d give her money to help support their two sons. Ultimately, the arrangement didn’t work and she stopped driving Ussery to work prior to December, she testified.

Although the woman testified she wasn’t in a relationship with Ussery at the time of the assault, Roberts told the jury Ussery and the woman were still dating.

“They had a relationship. She just didn’t want her parents to know,” Roberts said.

She said the woman’s parents didn’t approve of the relationship.

The woman testified she didn’t have any reason to hide a relationship from her parents.

On the morning of Dec. 19, 2008, she was surprised to see Ussery emerge from her car trunk although he’d hidden in her trunk before, she said.

The woman said she tussled with Ussery and gained control of the gun.

She threw the gun out of the car, but somehow Ussery ended up on the driver’s side. He drove down the street past the woman’s house and onto a dirt road, she said.

He raped her after the car became damaged by running over two manholes or sewer pipes, she said.

The woman testified that she had a medical procedure a few days before the assault and had been advised not to have sex. She said she didn’t consent to have sex with Ussery.

Ussery drove the car back down the street to the vicinity of the bus stop after the assault. When he got out to look for his gun, the woman ran away, she said.

Roberts told the jury the couple engaged in consensual sex while parked on the dirt road. Ussery later pushed the car free from the manhole or sewage pipe after the car became damaged.

Ussery then drove the car back up the street to the vicinity of the school bus stop until it ran out of oil and became inoperable.

He offered the woman his car, but she refused, Roberts said.

Ussery went to work and was on a roof when members of the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task force arrested him, she said.

Roberts said Ussery was beaten enough during the arrest that he went to the hospital before he was taken to jail.

No gun was recovered, she said.

Testimony is scheduled to continue Wednesday.

To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398.

  Comments  

Videos

They called her ‘upside down glasses.’ Now she owns it

Barberitos shooting witness recalls what she saw night of killing

View More Video

Trending Stories

Man run over by train in Macon suicide linked to 1991 vanishing of Sabrina Long

February 21, 2019 03:48 PM

Macon is known for mayhem and murder. But is that reputation fair?

February 21, 2019 07:00 AM

Macon-Bibb commissioner ‘maintains his innocence’ after DUI arrest in downtown

February 22, 2019 06:27 AM

Missouri woman dies from injuries after chain-reaction crashes on I-75 near Perry

February 22, 2019 12:38 PM

Ga.’s shame: Speaker is using his position to delay trial for accused rapist, others

February 21, 2019 02:24 PM

Read Next

Patriots owner Robert Kraft accused of soliciting prostitute
Video media Created with Sketch.

Business

Patriots owner Robert Kraft accused of soliciting prostitute

By TERRY SPENCER and JOSHUA REPLOGLE Associated Press

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 22, 2019 05:08 PM

Police say New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft faces misdemeanor charges of soliciting a prostitute after he was twice videotaped in a sex act at a Florida massage parlor.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to The Telegraph

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE NEWS

Chicago prosecutors charge R. Kelly with abusing 4 victims

Celebrities

Chicago prosecutors charge R. Kelly with abusing 4 victims

February 22, 2019 05:04 PM
Dove, Reddit founder champion paternity leave, offering new dads $5,000 grants

National

Dove, Reddit founder champion paternity leave, offering new dads $5,000 grants

February 22, 2019 05:01 PM
Wake Forest dean apologizes after 37-year-old yearbook photo resurfaces

National

Wake Forest dean apologizes after 37-year-old yearbook photo resurfaces

February 22, 2019 04:36 PM
Democrats say military projects are at risk as they prepare to defy Trump on wall

Politics & Government

Democrats say military projects are at risk as they prepare to defy Trump on wall

February 22, 2019 04:47 PM

National

Patriots owner Robert Kraft is among the hundreds charged in Florida sex traffic sting

February 22, 2019 12:23 PM
Venezuela power struggle turns to music at aid concert

Celebrities

Venezuela power struggle turns to music at aid concert

February 22, 2019 04:17 PM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

Macon Telegraph App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Archives
Advertising
  • Place a Classified Ad
  • Advertise with Us
  • Local Deals
Copyright
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story