Woman testifies about attack with knife
NEW BOSTON, Texas—The alleged victim of a daytime sexual assault testified Wednesday that she was getting ready for family night at the rodeo when she noticed her back door kicked open and the father of her children coming toward her with a knife.
The woman testified that Brandon Lee Harrison, 31, had moved out of the home they shared in New Boston in May 2017, under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp. Harrison is on trial in Bowie County for two counts of aggravated sexual assault with a deadly weapon alleged to have occurred the afternoon of Sept. 15, 2017.
The alleged victim told the jury that she asked Harrison to move out after learning he’d been fired from his job as a Bowie County jailer but had concealed his unemployment from her for
weeks. She said Harrison would dress in his uniform in the morning and return home in the evening as if he’d spent the day on the job.
The woman testified that she’d tried to get a protective order against Harrison but was unsuccessful because he had not hit her. The woman testified that Harrison often threatened suicide in text messages and that he would prevent her from getting in her car when the two met at parks or store parking lots to exchange their two young children, then ages 10 and 4.
The alleged victim testified she had spent part of the day Sept. 15, 2017, with a man she’d begun dating in June and that the two were planning to take her two children and his children that night to the rodeo at the Four States Fair. The woman said she got home about 3 p.m. and started getting ready for the evening while expecting her son’s school bus.
The woman testified that she was getting a pair of pants out of her dryer when she realized the door between her garage and house had been kicked open.
“I knew right then,” the alleged victim testified, her voice shaking. “I turned around and he was running at me with a kinfe.”
The woman said Harrison, who is 6’6 and about 250 pounds, knocked her to the floor and held the blade to her throat while covering her mouth with his other hand. The woman testified that she tried to calm Harrison by agreeing with him and reminding him that their young son would be home any minute.
The woman said Harrison repeatedly said he wanted to have sex with her one more time as he walked her to her bedroom with the knife to her back.
“I kept saying, ‘Think about what you’re doing. You’re about to rape me. (Our son) is about to be home,’” the woman testified.
The woman said Harrison chided her about photos of her boyfriend he found in her bedroom earlier in the day before she got home. The woman said Harrison forced her to get on all fours and sexually assaulted her in various ways.
The woman said Harrison did not notice that her cell phone was on the bed, covered in clothes she’d been trying on, as he attacked her. The woman managed to send her boyfriend a message which stated “911,” a code they’d agreed she’d use should Harrison threaten her.
As the woman testified, the jury was shown a series of messages which stated, “911,” “911,” “911,” “police,” “he has a knife,” “he’s raping me.”
The woman said she was able to convince Harrison to leave the knife on a bedroom dresser and that after he stopped sexually assaulting her he went to the bathroom, giving her time to text. The woman was also able to text “911” to her mother before Harrison threw the phone across the room.
The woman testified that she tried to run from Harrison but he caught her, pinned her against a wall, choked her and “back handed” her face.
“He said, ‘Why did you make me do this,’” the woman testified.
The woman said Harrison picked up a pair of scissors and placed them on the dining table but later threw them down a hall and claimed Harrison forced her to text her boyfriend that everything was okay.
The woman’s boyfriend testified that he headed to the woman’s house and that the woman’s mother, who is married to a Bowie County deputy, called police. The woman said Harrison would not let her get up when New Boston police officer Rusty Hill knocked on the front door.
The woman said that before the police were able to use the code for a side door she texted to her boyfriend to enter the home, Harrison pulled a pair of her panties from his pocket and laid them on the dining table. Photographs of the panties, the large kitchen knife on top of a dresser and a pair of scissors on the floor were shown to the jury.
When police entered the side door, the woman fled through the front, she testified. The woman was directed across the street by a police officer where her boyfriend was waiting with her son and a family friend, she testified.
The family friend, Lance Johnson, testified that he’d become acquainted with the alleged victim and Harrison through youth baseball, under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards. Johnson said he was becoming increasingly concerned about Harrison and had warned the alleged victim about his misgivings.
Johnson said he received a voice message or a text from Harrison early on the morning of the assault stating that Harrison was walking from his apartment in Texarkana to New Boston. The trip takes about 20 minutes in a car but much longer on foot.
Johnson said he left home early that morning and found Harrison sitting on his back porch when he returned about 10 a.m.
“He said he’d walked all night,” Johnson testified.
Johnson said Harrison claimed his sister was coming to pick him up and that Harrison’s appearance and demeanor caused him to take his outdoor hide-a-key with him when he left.
“I wasn’t comfortable with him being around my house that day,” Johnson testified.
In the days after the alleged assault, the woman and family members attempted to get a key to Harrison’s apartment from the property manager. Harrison had listed Johnson as someone who could gain entry in an emergency.
Johnson said that he went to the apartment to help the family collect the children’s belongings. While there, a note from Harrison was found on a sheetless mattress. The note expressed that Harrison wanted to have sex with the alleged victim once again before he died.
The jury watched a videotaped interview of Harrison speaking with New Boston Police Department Investigator Brandon Harbison recorded the night of Harrison’s arrest. In the interview, Harrison weeps and confirms most of the woman’s account. Under cross examination by Clayton Haas of the Bowie County Public Defenders Office, a portion of the video during which Harrison denies raping the woman was played for the jury as well.
A serologist from the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Lab testified that DNA from two male profiles were found on swabs collected from the woman’s body. The DNA expert testified that one of the profiles was consistent with the woman’s boyfriend’s DNA. The quality of the second profile was not sufficient to conclude that it did or did not belong to Harrison, the serologist testified.
After 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart placed the jury in an evening recess, Crisp argued that cross examination of witnesses by Haas and Public Defender Deborah Moore had opened the door for the state to call additional witnesses who will allegedly testify that Harrison is sexually aggressive toward women. Lockhart said he will hear testimony and arguments on the issue in the morning before the jury returns and trial resumes.
If convicted, Harrison faces five to 99 years or life on each of the two counts pending against him. The case could be in the jury’s hands sometime Thursday.