A woman described Tuesday how she was beaten with a flashlight, ordered to strip and sexually assaulted with a golf club before being dumped on the side of a San Diego-area highway.
Catherine R. McCoy, 47, and Christopher R. Carrera, 32, are accused of abducting, beating and assaulting the 21-year-old woman because the victim admitted to having sex with McCoy's boyfriend.
McCoy and Carrera allegedly dumped the victim on southbound state Route 125, just south of state Route 54, in Spring Valley on Aug. 18.
The unidentified woman provided graphic details at a preliminary hearing inside a downtown courtroom Tuesday, describing the beating that left her so injured, she couldn't be interviewed by police immediately after the attack.
The victim said she was confronted when she went into a makeshift garage at a City Heights home to retrieve some of her clothing.
The victim testified that moments after she admitted that she had had sex with McCoy's boyfriend, she was thrown into a white SUV and was being beaten on the head and body with a flashlight.
She said her attackers put a sheet over her head and demanded that she take off her clothes.
The woman testified that Carrera beat her from his position in the driver's seat.
She said McCoy used a golf club to sexually assault her, forcing the handle inside her body eight times in a brutal attack that lasted between 30 seconds to a minute.
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An hour later police said McCoy and Carrea stopped the SUV on State Route 125, at which point Carrera allegedly pulled the victim out of the vehicle by her hair, before punching her in the face and kicking her.
McCoy and Carrera fled the scene as the victim began waving to motorists for help police said.
One person in the gallery was exchanging looks with the victim during testimony and was ejected from court.
At another point in the testimony, McCoy vomited in a trash can near the defense table. The judge called a recess to allow her to compose herself before testimony could continue.
As for the relationship between the victim and the accused, the victim said she had seen Carrera about 10 times at the home she had lived in for several weeks. She testified she had been to McCoy's home to purchase drugs on two occasions.
The victim admitted to using heroin for at least a year and half and said she smokes pot just about every day. She even described how she had overdosed four times.
Defense attorneys used that drug history to point out the victim may have a lapse of memory or may be unable to judge time.
If the judge rules the case will go to trial, McCoy and Carrera face charges ranging from kidnapping, sexual assault and assault with a deadly weapon and intimidation.
