[UPDATE: Here's the story that appeared in today's paper. A total of four people have been arrested and charged in connection with this crime.]
Court records show that a 19-year-old woman found Sunday shot, stabbed and bound with tape had been tortured for hours and left for dead in the flooded basement of a vacant house in East Baltimore. Law enforcement sources say the incident stemmed from a drug dispute.
Torrence Jerome White, 23, has been charged with 19 counts, including attempted first-degree murder. The victim, identified as Deyonna N. Charles, was found Feb. 28 by a good samaritan, walking in the 1500 block of N. Patterson Park Ave. with her hands bound with tape and suffering from gunshot wounds to her face and neck and stab wounds to her body. Records show that the abductors ordered Charles to make phone calls to round up ransom money.
Police say Charles was at the Executive Inn in the 3600 block of Pulaski Highway when she left her room to get a soda. While returning to the room, a man armed with a handgun approached and ordered her into a waiting vehicle that had a number of people inside.
They drove her to a vacant dwelling in the 1500 block of N. Patterson Park and duct taped her head, hands and feet. She was assaulted with an unknown weapon, had duct tape placed across her eyes and shot on the left side of her neck and her right cheek.
"They were taking turns torturing me," she told police.
She was then taken to the basement, which was flooded with water, and left there, records show. Though still partially bound, she was able to flee the dwelling and get to the street, where a passerby saw her standing in the middle of the street and drove her to Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Police say White was an active participant in the torture, stabbing her and instructing others to bound her with duct tape. He ordered her to make telephone calls to get money for her release.
Law enforcement sources say some of the suspects involved in the abduction and torture were women, and that the incident was sparked by a dispute over drugs.