‘Beaten, bound, and brutalized’ | Victim recounts three-day abuse from ex-boyfriend

MARRERO, La. (WGNO) — A Marrero man has been found guilty by a Jefferson Parish jury for crimes committed over the course of three days in 2021.

60-year-old Darryl Vinson was convicted Wednesday (April 3) on charges of attempted second-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping, second-degree sexual battery, and false imprisonment with a dangerous weapon.

Court documents revealed that between the dates of  Jan. 27, 2021, and Jan. 29, 2021, a 48-year-old woman testified that over a three-day period, she was beaten, bound, and brutalized”mercilessly” at the hands of Vinson in her own home.

The recount of the incident told in court reads as followed:

“Vinson hogtied the naked woman, forced her to sleep on the cold tile floor in a closet, made her crawl on all fours when he let her leave the closet, kicked her and inserted the barrel of her pistol into her body. He stabbed her in the forehead and left lacerations from a serrated knife blade just below her neck.”

To prevent her from crying aloud, he inserted dirty underwear and socks into her mouth and used duct tape to keep them in place. He forced her to eat cat food and injected methamphetamine into her body. He wouldn’t let her use her phone.

Using a chord, he strangled her at least three times where she lost consciousness each time. During closing arguments Assistant District Attorney Tommy Block told jurors the victim said “She woke up one time, and she thought she was dead.”

The woman suffered severe injuries while in the custody of Vinson including:

• brain bleeding
• a fractured eye socket for which she has a titanium plate
• fractured ribs
• a bruised lung
• numerous lacerations
• ligature marks on her neck, wrists, and ankles

The sexual assault nurse examiner in the case testified that the incident is “one of the most severe that I’ve seen.”

Court documents say the two met outside of a Gretna area drugstore. Vinson was homeless until he met the woman, befriended her and later became her boyfriend where they then moved in together.

Days after having hernia surgery on Jan. 27, the victim went with Vinson to his mother’s Marrero home. After returning to her Gretna home Vinson arrived, accusing the victim of infidelity, which the victim says she denied.

That’s when the victim says the abuse began. On Jan. 29, Vinson threatened the woman with a gun to panhandle drivers on along Manhattan Boulevard and the Westbank Expressway. The motorist witnessed Vinson beating the victim and called 911 to report the crime.

One driver told the dispatcher the victim was “black and blue and covered in blood.” During the course of the investigation, Gretna Police found the victim’s home in disarray except for the master bedroom which Vinson reportedly attempted to clean with bleach.

Vinson’s attorney told the court that both Vinson and the victim suffered from substance abuse therefore “her recollections about what occurred might not be as clear as she now asserts.”

After an hour of deliberation, a unanimous guilty verdict was returned. Vinson is set to be sentenced on June 15.

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