A man is accused of raping, beating and starving a woman while holding her captive for nearly a week, all while her four-year-old son was in the home.
Police arrested a Florida man they say repeatedly raped, beat and starved a woman while holding her captive for nearly a week, all while her four-year-old son was in the home.
Robert Pettis, 28, allegedly first punched the victim in the eye on October 15 and when she tried to call 911, he broke all the electronics in the Daytona Beach home so she could not reach out for help, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.
He then began kicking and punching the woman and pulling her hair, the News-Journal wrote. Pettis choked the woman, grabbed her by the neck and reportedly cut of the woman’s breathing by wrapping a wire around her neck, cops said.
Pettis allegedly forced the woman into sex acts numerous times while he held her captive.
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He took the woman’s four-year-old son to school, but he made sure to keep an eye on the victim, who was forced by box cutter to wait in the car, the News-Journal wrote.
Pettis also moved the bed to block the front door of the home and threatened to blow up the apartment and the woman and child with a bomb he claimed to be making, the woman told police.
The woman escaped when Pettis allegedly forced her to drive him to a liquor store and she sped away when he got out of the car, police said.
She had planned to get him very drunk and slip out when she could, but Pettis ran out of alcohol and demanded the woman drive him to get more, according to police.
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She rushed to a police station and after her many injuries were photographed, the woman was brought to the hospital. A lieutenant picked up the child from school, the paper wrote.
Pettis was charged with sexual assault, false imprisonment and child abuse. He was being held without bail Thursday at the Volusia County Branch Jail, the News-Journal wrote. Information for his attorney was not available.
Pettis was also arrested in 2014 by Daytona Beach police and charged with being a principle to child abuse, when he initially first called cops to complain that his wife hit him, according to reports. However, when police arrived, they noticed the little boy, who was three at the time, had bruises on his legs.
The boy’s mother told police that Pettis disciplined the toddler with a belt, the paper reported. Pettis was not prosecuted in that case, according to reports.
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