Details emerge in Bedford kidnapping case

By Chris Dumond

Published: August 25, 2008

BEDFORD — The case against a Bedford County man accused of kidnapping a woman, holding her for a day and raping her three times was sent to a grand jury Monday.

George Leroy Keaton Jr., 30, of Scenic Drive in western Bedford County, is charged with malicious wounding, abduction, rape and two counts of sodomy. An additional charge of sodomy was dropped by prosecutors Monday afternoon.

A 30-year-old woman testified during a preliminary hearing on Monday that she had visited Keaton’s sister, Patricia Fitch, for about an hour on Dec. 26. When she left, she said, Keaton asked for a ride to his home just a few hundred yards away.

The woman said Keaton had boasted about violating the terms of his release from prison in October for assaulting his ex-girlfriend and offered to show her the papers. When she went to the door, she testified, he threw her inside, locked the door and told her she wouldn’t be leaving.

“He told me he was mad at his ex-girlfriend and he was going to take it out on someone,” she said.

He then forced her to have sex with him twice, she testified.

When she asked if she could leave to go see her children, he punched her in the mouth, she said.

Around 6 a.m. the next morning, she said, his sister’s husband came by to pick him up for work. He told the man he wouldn’t be coming in for work that day, she said, adding that she didn’t believe the other man had seen her.

An hour later, he walked with her to her car again and told her to start it and warm it up. She said he held her sweatshirt so she couldn’t run away and took her back into the house.

When she got back in, he told her she was stupid if she thought she was going to leave.

“He told me the only way you’re going to leave here is I’m going to kill you and then I’m going to kill myself,” she testified.

She eventually convinced him to let her out to turn off the car, she said. This time, she put the car in gear and tried to get away, but he threw himself into the car and she crashed into a telephone pole.

When he brought her inside again, he put a knife to her throat and said he was going to kill her, she testified. Instead of cutting her, though, he rolled off and started crying, she said. She used the opportunity to get outside, where she met his sister.

When his sister confronted Keaton, she said, he admitted raping the woman and holding her captive. But, he ended the story telling his sister he had stabbed the woman, then pulled out a knife and actually stabbed her. The woman said she got in Fitch’s car and was able to get away finally, and get treatment at a hospital.

Fitch testified that the woman was the one who called her over and that she told her Keaton had held her captive when he stabbed her.

Bedford Commonwealth’s Attorney Randy Krantz has said he intends to indict Keaton for aggravated malicious wounding because of the severity of the woman’s stab wound.

Keaton is jailed without bond in the Blue Ridge Regional Jail. He faces life in prison if convicted.

His case had been delayed for repeated mental evaluations after authorities said he made a “suicidal gesture.”