Victim, accused present conflicting stories as bowling alley abduction trial continues

Clark County

Related Photos

Peter Allen Roberts Sr.

Discussion

Add a comment on this story

August 22, 2012

Victim, accused present conflicting stories as bowling alley abduction trial continues

Peter Roberts said he was trying to help woman

By GARY POPP gary.popp@newandtribune.com The News and Tribune Wed Aug 22, 2012, 09:30 PM EDT

JEFFERSONVILLE — Peter Allen Roberts Sr. testified Wednesday in Clark County Circuit Court No. 1 in defense of himself against claims he attempted to abduct a young woman in the parking lot of Blackiston Bowl on Oct. 16, 2010.

In the second day of the jury trial both Roberts, of Jeffersonville, and the alleged victim, Elizabeth Davey, 25, took the witness stand to give their sides of how the woman ended up in Roberts’ truck with a rope noose around her neck, knife wounds near her chin and cuts on her arms and hands.

Clark County Deputy Prosecutor Matthew Lemme rested the state’s case about 3:30 p.m. after calling Davey to the stand as its final witness.

The mother of two testified she had spent the evening bowling and singing karaoke before she left the bowing alley about 2:30 a.m.

Davey said she saw Roberts, a man with whom she said she had no previous interaction, standing in the area between a set of doors at the business’ entrance as she left and that he opened the door for her.

Davey testified she thanked Roberts for opening the door and left the bowling alley. After taking several steps, Davey said Roberts grabbed her from behind and lifted her off the ground.

“I couldn’t move my arms,” she said. “All I could do is kick.”

Davey said she was confused by what was going on and could only frantically ask the stranger what was happening to her.

“All he said was, ‘Be quiet,’” she said.

For a moment she was able to break free, but Roberts fell on top of her and continued to drag her to his truck.

As Roberts held her against the side of truck, Davey said she realized he was holding a knife against her throat.

“He said, ‘Can you feel that?’” Davey said of Roberts’ threatening remarks to her.

After the two entered the cab of Roberts’ truck, the situation became even more grave, Davey said.

“He put a rope around my neck and started tying it around my feet,” she said.

During the altercation, Davey said she tried to convince Roberts to let her go by telling him she was a mother.

Davey said the encounter came to a sudden stop when two men, who were alerted to the altercation by one of the men’s wives, opened the door of the truck and removed Roberts.

The men restrained Roberts until Clarksville police arrived and took him into custody.

Davey said she had consumed alcohol while at the bowling alley, but not enough to impair her ability to decipher what transpired after she left the business or to know who assaulted her.

“Yeah, I was intoxicated, but not to the point that I didn’t know what I was doing,” she said.

Nearly two years later, Davey said she is still haunted by what took place that cool October morning.

“It is just scary,” she said. “You don’t forget, expect it to happen to you.”

Roberts was the last person to testify during Wednesday’s proceedings and was questioned first by his attorney Andrew Adams.

Roberts, who was employed by Dallas Group of America Inc. in October 2010 said Friday, Oct. 15, started like any normal day.

Roberts said he got off work at 4:30 p.m., went to get his hair cut at The Clipper, near his Middle Road home in Jeffersonville, and went home to shower before going to a bowling league at Blackiston Bowl along Eastern Boulevard.

After bowling three games, Roberts said he sat with friends at the bowling alley’s bar, where he had several beers before leaving about 2:30 Saturday morning.

Roberts testified that he walked out of the bar and about halfway to his truck he noticed a female lying in the parking lot asking for help.

He said that all he wanted to do was help the woman, so he picked her up and took her to his truck, which he referred to as his “safe place.”

“I didn’t know what to do,” Roberts said. “I was just trying to get her to safety.”

Roberts testified that he wanted to get Davey into his truck, then call police for help.

He said that as he helped Davey into his truck, she immediately slid to the floorboard, at which time she stated to him that she couldn’t breath.

Roberts said he reached down and felt a rope around her neck.

In an attempt to cut the rope, which was tied into a noose, from around Davey’s neck, he took a 4-inch pocket knife from his pocket, he said.

As he began cutting the rope, Roberts said Davey moved her head and he accidentally cut her neck area.

With the rope still around Davey’s neck, two passersby flung open the door of the truck and Davey ran toward the bowling alley as she took the rope from her neck.

Before stepping down from the witness stand, Roberts said he has never been in trouble and that he wished he had never tried to help Davey in the first place.

Roberts is being charged with criminal confinement — armed with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury, a class B felony; intimidation, a class D felony; strangulation, a class D felony; and battery committed by means of a deadly weapon or resulting in serious bodily injury, a class C felony.

Before Adams presented the defense, he requested that presiding Circuit Court Judge Daniel Moore dismiss the intimidation and strangulation charges.

Moore granted Adams’ motion to dismiss the strangulation charge on grounds that Davey’s breathing was not impeded to the extent required by the charge.

The motion to strike the intimidation charge was dismissed by Moore.

If found guilty of the three remaining charges, Roberts could be placed in the Indiana Department of Correction for a maximum of 31 years.

The trial is scheduled to continue today with the defense’s case.