KTLA.COM
Giovanni McKinnis, 19, was charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, domestic violence, restraining order violation and false imprisonment for kidnapping his girlfriend on Christmas Day.
A Los Angeles-area man kidnapped his girlfriend on Christmas Day, sexually assaulted her and kept her prisoner for more than a week before cops found them, authorities said.
Giovanni McKinnis, 19, attacked the 19-year-old woman at her Palmdale home on Dec. 25 and then forced her to his home on East Avenue Q, where they were both discovered on Saturday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said.
The woman, who is the mother of McKinnis' child, was found huddled in a bedroom and looked as though she'd been beaten, a spokesman said.
During the 10-day ordeal, McKinnis had battered her, sexually assaulted her and, at one point, choked her until she nearly passed out, sheriff's Sgt. Brian Hudson said.
KCAL.COM
Authorities say McKinnis kept the woman hostage for 10 days at his apartment. 'Had (we) not intervened last night, this victim probably would have ended up dead,' a sheriff's spokesman said.
"There's no doubt in our minds that if the deputies … had not intervened last night, this victim probably would have ended up dead," sheriff's Sgt. Brian Hudson told local KTLA television.
McKinnis was charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, domestic violence, restraining order violation and false imprisonment.
He was being held on $1 million bail. His grandmother, Frieda McKinnis, told KTLA the two were feuding over custody of their son.
"She came over of her own accord, to pick up some belongings," she told the station. "He tried to get her to leave,and she wouldn't leave. And then the police came."