MEGAN WILLIAMS and the torturers who nearly killed her. Dan Combs, middle row on left

New York Times — 27 September 2008 — by Daniel Heyman — 6th White Defendant Admits Role in Black Woman’s Torture

— CHARLESTON WV — A year after six white West Virginians were charged with kidnapping a young black woman, holding her captive and torturing her, the last defendant in the case pleaded guilty on Friday.

The authorities have said the victim, then 20, was repeatedly stabbed and sexually assaulted at a remote mobile home before sheriff’s deputies rescued her.

Five of the defendants pleaded guilty to a variety of charges including kidnapping, malicious wounding and sexual assault. Their maximum sentences ranged from 10 to 40 years.

On Friday, the final defendant, Danny J. Combs, 20, pleaded guilty in a county court in Logan, W.Va., to first-degree sexual assault, assault during the commission of a felony and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.

Mr. Combs, from the community of Harts, southwest of Charleston, was sentenced to imprisonment of 4 to 20 years.

According to a statement the victim gave to sheriff’s deputies in a hospital examination room, Mr. Combs was responsible for some of the worst acts against her, including raping her at knifepoint and forcing her to eat dog and rat feces. — Click the pic to read the rest! —

Through his public defender, Mr. Combs declined to comment on Friday.

Friends of the victim, Megan Williams, say she moved to Ohio this spring. Neither she nor her family responded to requests for an interview.

Ms. Williams has made a number of public appearances, including a segment this year on Montel Williams’s syndicated talk show, where she spoke of her ordeal, and attendance at rallies held after the arrests to call for hate-crime charges to be brought.

In her statement to the police, Ms. Williams said several of the kidnappers used racist language during the attacks. But only one, Karen Burton, 46, was charged with a hate crime. She admitted to stabbing Ms. Williams in the ankle and making a racist remark.

Mr. Combs had been scheduled to go on trial on Oct. 7, and Sandra Calloway, an advocate in Charleston for victims of domestic violence and sexual assaults, said preparations for the trial had been painful for Ms. Williams, especially “having to recount what happened.”

“She’s had nightmares,” Ms. Calloway said.
Copyright © 27 September 2008 The New York Times Company