Victim testifies in kidnapping, rape case

Editor's note: According to the prosecuting attorney's office, the charges against Michael D. Pruitt in this case were dropped after the subject of the case discontinued her cooperation in the case.

Part of Cape Girardeau County assistant prosecuting attorney Julie Hunter’s evidence in a kidnapping, assault and rape case were photographs of the alleged victim’s injuries, including a mark where her alleged assailant held a fishing knife to her throat, marks on the side of her torso when he assaulted her and choke marks around her neck.

Hunter showed the photos to the victim to confirm their content. The victim, already emotional from testimony, sobbed on the stand.

Judge Craig Brewer found there was sufficient probable cause to bound over Michael D. Wolf Pruitt, 18, of Cape Girardeau for arraignment. Pruitt faces charges of kidnapping, rape and second-degree domestic assault.

The 17-year-old victim testified Pruitt was there to pick her up after work about 11:30 p.m. June 28 at a Taco Bell in Jackson. Pruitt and the victim had been in a romantic relationship that lasted a little more than two years before Pruitt broke up with her in February, she said. They had several instances where they reconnected briefly, she said.

They talked on the phone while she was on break at the restaurant and later texted; the victim thought Pruitt was going to arrive with a friend, she testified. She approached the car, saw only Pruitt, who got out of the vehicle and put a 5- to 6-inch knife to her throat, she said. Pruitt then drove with her to Cape Girardeau. Once at an apartment at 807 N. Sprigg St., Pruitt dragged the victim by her hair up a flight of stairs, she said.

Pruitt pushed the victim’s face into a couch and got on top of her as she struggled, at one point grabbing her sides and leaving marks.

“He cussed me out, called me a lying whore, cheating whore,” the victim said. “I told him to stop, and he wouldn’t stop.”

Pruitt raped the victim for about two minutes, she said. Pruitt went to the bathroom and the victim ran away, trying to get to the Southeast Missouri State University campus, she said.

Pruitt caught up with her, tackled her and punched her in the side, she said. Pruitt dragged her back to the apartment, where he slammed her against an object, she said. She fell to the ground, and Pruitt kicked her, she said. He later bit her arm and choked her, she said.

The victim tried to leave again, but Pruitt tried to stab himself with a knife and later a screwdriver, she said. At one point, the victim locked herself in the bathroom and called her mom and a friend, she said.

Pruitt eventually took the victim back to Jackson, dropping her off near her home about 2 a.m., she said.

Her parents initially were angry she came home much later than she said she would. But she showed her mother her injuries, and she was taken to the Jackson police station, she said. A rape kit later was performed at Beacon Health Center, she said.

Pruitt’s attorney Jeffrey Dix asked the victim whether she had been forbidden from seeing Pruitt, and she said she had.

“My mom said it was my life choice, and if I wanted to ruin my life, that was my choice,” the victim said, after her parents found out she still was seeing Pruitt.

Dix also asked the victim whether she and Pruitt saw each other in May and June 3. Dix asked why the victim did not say she had been raped when she called her mother and friend.

“I said I was scared, and I need you to pick me up,” she said. “You wouldn’t say that. It’s personal stuff, especially when he’s in the other room acting psycho.”

bkleine@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3644

Pertinent address:

807 N. Sprigg St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.