Detroit – A woman recounted in court Tuesday how, with her attacker’s knife still lodged in her chest, she freed herself from a rape attempt by a teenager who police say assaulted numerous women. The 39-year-old woman calmly recounted during the preliminary examination for 18-year-old Darian Winfield before 36th District Judge Ronald Giles how she was attacked in the bedroom of her home in the 5800 block of Radnor.
She eventually broke free after using her stun gun on him. “I lit him up,” the woman said. “I could smell something burning.”
The woman identified Winfield as her attacker. She pointed to him in court as he stared straight ahead at Giles. She also said she identified him earlier in a police photo lineup. The woman said Winfield was the man who came into her bedroom around 3:43 a.m. Dec. 30 and jumped on top of her telling her he wanted sex.
“He was hitting me … stabbing me,” said the woman before a hushed courtroom. “I started fighting back. I’m pulling his hoodie. I’m fighting him.” The woman says she then recognized Winfield as someone who lived in her east side neighborhood. “I know you,” the woman says she told Winfield. “You’re a kid. You’re a boy.” She says she asked Winfield what he wanted and he pointed to her groin area saying “I want that” and told her to lie down.
The woman, who said she believes her attacker came in through a first floor window, says she told Winfield: “You did all this for some sex?” She then said she created a ruse by telling Winfield she wanted to make sure one of her daughters wasn’t in the house hearing the commotion. As her attacker walked behind her clutching her T-shirt in his fist, the woman testified she was able to get to her stun gun and shoot him.
The woman broke free, removed the knife and ran out of her house and across the street to her sister’s house. Winfield, the woman said, ran in the opposite direction. The victim received four stabs wound, one of which punctured her lungs, and was hospitalized for two weeks. She received 12 staples to her head for injuries sustained when her attacker hit her in the head with a lamp from her bedroom.
Winfield was bound over on home invasion, assault with intent to murder charges and assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct. He is due back in court for an arraignment on information Tuesday. Winfield’s family would not comment after the court hearing, but earlier denied he is the attacker police sought in a string of rapes on the east side of the city. “He’s a model student, he works, he goes to school,” his mother, Anita Pace, told The Detroit News on Jan. 8. “It’s not him. They have the wrong person.”
Winfield also is accused of stabbing a 48-year-old Grosse Pointe Farms woman after briefly speaking to her around 12:05 a.m. Dec. 13 as the woman walked in the 1400 block of Cadieux in Grosse Pointe Park. That woman was injured in the face, neck and upper chest. Authorities say Winfield allegedly fled the scene after the Grosse Pointe Park attack. He is due in court Monday for a preliminary exam hearing in the incident. Winfield is charged with assault with intent to murder. He was given a $1 million bond.
A 17-year-old girl who was beaten during an assault authorities also believe is connected to Winfield died from her injuries Jan. 12. The girl was beaten on the head during the attack at her home in the 5300 block of Radnor. She had been hospitalized with life-threatening injuries since the assault. No charges have been filed in that case.
