INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — A belt, a gun and a meth pipe. The victim of a brutal assault told FOX 4 those are just some of the weapons an Independence, Mo., man used to assault her.
Thirty-two-year-old Cornelius Coleman is currently on parole and a registered sex offender. He now faces charges of assault and kidnapping.
The victim, who did not want to be shown on camera, is identified in court documents as “A.W.” She says Coleman was high on meth when, over the course of several days, he viciously abused her.
“I was going to die,” she said. “Just anything I did that he did not agree with, anything I said.”
A.W. says Coleman, while high on meth, snapped. She was handcuffed, put in a room, and according to court documents, struck with a belt more than 15 times.
It was the same belt he used to then choke her.
“He would spit in my face. I was burnt with a meth pipe. I was kicked, I was punched. I have scars in my mouth from where a gun was put in my mouth,” A.W. said.
It was that gun that kept her and her four kids, all home at the time, silent in fear.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen to my kids,” she said. But, it was Sunday morning when she finally saw her chance to escape.
“My mother was knocking on the door. I told him she’s gonna want to see me. I have to talk to her. I had nothing on but a t-shirt. I ran out.”
Now Tuesday, A.W. said she still hasn’t been back inside the home, and neither have her kids — saying it’s too difficult.
Coleman remains in jail on a $500,000 bond. He is a prior offender. At 18 years old, he was convicted of statutory rape, where the victim was a 12-year-old girl.