Opinion ID: 1281505
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Bristol Incident

Text: Defendant had agreed to speak with the police, and a lengthy statement was tape-recorded. In that statement and in other statements to police before and after the taped interview, defendant claimed that on the night of January 29, 1981, he had been drinking and smoking marijuana and was in a crazy mood. He decided to find myself a homosexual to beat up on, and after allegedly beating and robbing someone, he went for a drive. It was then he saw Bristol hitchhiking and gave her a ride. [4] In the course of the drive, however, he found he could not find her destination and became annoyed with her complaining about her problems. Defendant claims he asked Bristol to get out of the van, and when she refused to leave, he hit her and dragged her out. She allegedly said she would do anything, so he threw her in the back of the van, then permitted her to resume her seat in front, and drove to another location. At this new location he parked, told her to get in the back of the van and to take her clothes off, and then had sexual intercourse with her. He claims she was willing but perhaps she thought it was forcible. In any event, as he dressed, she suddenly began kicking him and the van. Defendant then got mad and went beserk. He tied her wrists and ankles, taped her mouth so her screams would not be heard, and sodomized her; and in the course of sodomizing her, he forced her up against the hot engine cowling of the van in order to burn her breasts. He claimed that a second time he permitted her to leave the van, but again she started screaming, kicking, and hitting him; so he pushed a piece of cloth over her mouth and nose and held her by the throat. He claims he did not realize when she ceased to struggle that she had asphyxiated and he thought he heard a heartbeat. Finally he drove to the local junior high school and put her on the grass. He admitted flicking several matches into her pubic hair to hurt her for kicking him and putting a hole in the door of his van. He had no explanation as to how the rubber bands had ended up around the body.