Victim testifies during first day of sexual assault trial

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- A 22-year-old Benton, Mo., woman testified Wednesday that when she went to her ex-boyfriend's Cape Girardeau apartment building to pick up couple things she'd left there before their relationship soured, she didn't think her life was in danger.

Colbert Fairley, charged with two counts of forcible sodomy and one count of domestic assault, greeted her on June 13, 2007, with a lingering hug and said he missed her, the victim testified during the first half of a two-day trial in Butler County.

Minutes later, Fairley, convicted of second-degree murder in 1988, stripped her naked in his bedroom and pinned her to the bed, telling her he'd served 18 years in the penitentiary and wasn't afraid to go back, she testified.

He then allegedly molested her in what Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle called a "self-help gynecological exam."

The victim testified that Fairley accused her of sleeping with another man, which she denied several times before admitting that she had a new boyfriend.

She testified that he began hitting her and trying to choke her, at one point striking her so hard that her glasses flew off and broke against the dresser. She cried into a tissue as she took the jury through each forensic photograph of her bruised face and hip.

Two phone calls interrupted the alleged assault, one that Fairley made after flipping through the victim's cell phone and finding her boyfriend's number. Another call came from Fairley's boss, the victim testified.

She then began to get dressed, she said, but Fairley stopped her and pulled back her head by the hair and sexually abused her again. The best way to avoid being hurt any further would be to go along with him, she decided, so when he asked for some money, she went with him to Wal-Mart and tried to purchase speakers for his Cadillac.

"If I just killed him with kindness and acted like nothing was wrong, I might be able to escape," the victim testified.

Fairley gripped her upper arm the entire time, she said.

When her check was declined at the register, they proceeded to her bank, so she could find out her balance, but the computers were down.

When Jacob Zimmerman, Fairley's public defender, asked her during cross-examination why she didn't ask anyone at the store or the bank for help, she responded adamantly that she wanted to tell a family member first.

"Sir, I just had something that went on to me that was so emotional, I was not just going to run to some stranger that I did not know," she testified.

She drove to her aunt's house in Scott City when Fairley finally dropped her off at her car, she testified, and her relatives accompanied her to the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

Detective Debi Oliver testified that she observed bruising on the woman's face when she took her statement.

A DNA analyst with the Southeast Regional Crime Lab testified that evidence of a semen stain on the rug in Fairley's apartment matched a sample from the defendant, but no DNA from the victim was found.

During his opening statement, Zimmerman argued her DNA should have shown up during the test. But the analyst said she didn't know if that was an accurate conclusion.

During a cross-examination of the victim, Zimmerman highlighted several inconsistencies between her trial testimony and previous statements she made under oath.

During a preliminary hearing, she testified she went straight home after Wal-Mart, but at trial, she said she stopped at the bank, and Fairley demanded to see where her new boyfriend lived, so they drove by his house.

She also gave varying accounts of whether she was clothed the second time Fairley allegedly assaulted her in the apartment, Zimmerman pointed out.

"The truth is not hard to remember," Zimmerman said during his opening statement.

Fairley has a prior conviction for second-degree murder in 1988, when he served 18 years of a life sentence, because it was before truth in sentencing laws.

The defense will present several witnesses at 8 a.m. today before Judge Mark Richardson sends the five-men, seven-women jury into deliberation.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

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