Woman held captive, beaten in bathtub over drug debt

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This article was published 12/05/2021 (1798 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HELD captive and beaten in her own bathroom for two days, a Winnipeg woman told court she believed the only way she was going to leave her home was dead.

“I was sitting there dealing with the fact that at some point in time I was probably going to die during all of this,” Jennifer Carter testified Monday, struggling to stifle sobs. “I had no idea what was going to happen or what was going to come of it.

“I thought these people were my friends,” said Carter, 37.

Sherri Lee Leblanc, 44, Benjamin Burris Bonham, 56, and Eric James Roy, 29, are on trial, each charged with one count of robbery, aggravated assault and uttering threats, and two counts each of forcible confinement.

A fourth accused, 27-year-old Ritchie Stan Turtle, pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of forcible confinement and will be sentenced in July.

Carter, who testified she struggles with addictions to methamphetamine and heroin, told court her ordeal was sparked by a drug debt.

Carter testified she was relaxing with Roy, her boyfriend of one week, at her Point Douglas suite the afternoon of July 23 when one hour later, Leblanc, a recent friend, arrived.

“Everything started out fine and then things started escalating” when Leblanc got angry that Carter didn’t have money she owed her for drugs Carter had been given to sell.

“I had sold most of them and did some of them,” Carter said. “I didn’t end up having (the money) obviously… She had gotten reasonably mad at me, for good reason, and a bit of a fight started.”

Carter said Roy joined in the attack, punching and kicking her in the head before, at Leblanc’s direction, dragging her to the bathtub and binding her arms, legs and mouth with packing tape.

“Every so often someone would come in and I would endure a little bit of a beating” with weapons that included a crowbar, vacuum cleaner attachment and machete, Carter said. Her attackers “called me every name in the book possible and they would walk out, close the door behind them and leave me there for a while.”

Carter alleged that pattern repeated itself 10 to 12 times. During the most violent attack, Bonham, who Carter knew as “Mad Dog,” stomped on her back “until my ribs collapsed,” she said.

“As the days and night went on, I came to terms with the fact that eventually I was going to die,” Carter said.

Carter wasn’t given food or water and was removed from the bathtub just once so Bonham could have a shower, she said.

Carter’s ordeal came to an end two days later after her roommate, who was allegedly being confined in another part of the suite, escaped, prompting Leblanc to flee.

Carter said a man she knew from the neighbourhood responded to her screams for help and “just about dropped” when he saw her.

“He threw me over his shoulder, took me to the living room… cut the tape off and we both took off out of the house,” she said.

Carter was taken to hospital suffering five broken bones to her face and over a dozen broken ribs.

Leblanc, Carter said, was the clear leader among her attackers.

“Anything that she said went,” Carter alleged.

The trial before provincial court Judge David Mann began Friday and is set for nine days.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca