Cedar Rapids woman suffered serious stab wounds, doctor testifies

CEDAR RAPIDS - A 21-year-old Cedar Rapids woman testified Tuesday that Bryan Roche, a man she regarded as a friend, repeatedly sexually assaulted her, choked her and stabbed her twice in 2013.

She said Roche, 22, came to her apartment on April 21, 2013, and tried to rub her shoulders, but when she pushed him away he started choking her from behind. She said she started losing consciousness when she could feel his knee in her back and he started tying her up.

She said Roche tied her hands behind her and gagged her with a sock. He then started cutting her clothes off with scissors, she said.

'I thought ‘this can't be happening to me,'” the woman said.

Roche, of Marion, is on trial this week on charges of first-degree kidnapping, first-degree sexual abuse, attempted murder and willful injury causing serious injury. He is accused of holding the woman for two hours against her will and sexually assaulting her and stabbing her. The Gazette does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault.

The woman said she met Roche through a social media site; they became friends, but were never in a romantic relationship.

Roche sexually assaulted her more than once, the woman said defiantly and without hesitation. He used a condom and when the sock gag came out of her mouth, she said, he told her to be quiet or he would harm her 3-year-old daughter who was home. She said her daughter, at one point, saw them and Roche put her in a bedroom.

The woman said she asked him how long he was going to assault her, and he told her until the 'fun is gone.” He then took out a knife from his coat and stabbed her in the neck, she said.

She said she startled him when she 'popped up” and started walking backward into the bedroom. He then stabbed her in the stomach, but she was able to shut the door, leaving Roche on the other side, she said.

She said she talked to Roche through the door for about two hours. She said she asked him how long he had planned this. Roche told her he initially planned to rape her, but it 'got out of hand.”

The woman said she repeatedly told Roche that if he just let her go she wouldn't tell anybody, but he wouldn't leave. Finally, he left, but she said he first asked her to give him the tape he used to tie her up. She said she threw it out the door and thought she heard him leave. But she waited 30 minutes before leaving the room.

She said she got a knife from the kitchen for protection and went to a neighbor's apartment in the building for help.

Aaron Hamrock, Roche's attorney, on cross-examination asked if she let Roche into her apartment. 'We can agree you invited him over?” he asked

The woman said she let him in but she didn't invite him over that day.

Gary Schwab, the woman's neighbor who lived below her, testified she knocked on his door and he found her crouched down in the hallway. He said the woman had a towel in front of her and was naked. He said he could see she was upset and then saw the blood.

Schwab said he tried to help stop the bleeding and told his daughter to call 911.

Cedar Rapids police also testified about finding the woman in the hall when they arrived.

Officer Tim Davis said she was in a lot of pain but was able to tell them her daughter was upstairs. He said officers found the girl, and she was safe. The woman asked officers to call her mother to come get the child, Davis said.

Dr. Joshua Pruitt, an emergency physician at St. Luke's Hospital, testified the woman was 'critically ill” with life-threatening injuries when she arrived at the hospital. He said she wasn't responsive and had a laceration to the left side of her neck and an abdominal wound.

Dr. Robert Brimmer, surgeon with Physician's Clinic of Iowa, operated on her. He said Pruitt probably saved her life and without surgery, she could have died.

Cedar Rapids police investigators and an Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation criminalist also testified about evidence collected at the scene and DNA testing.

They said DNA taken from a used condom matched Roche. They said it was recovered from a gray plastic bag in a Dumpster, along with 'throwing” knives and tape used on the woman.

Roche led police to the evidence he threw away in a Dumpster, Cedar Rapids Police Investigator John McDaniel said.

The blood swab taken from one of the knives matched the DNA profile of the victim.

The prosecution continues its case at 9 a.m. Wednesday. The trial started Monday and may wrap up Thursday. Follow live updates on Twitter @tmehaffey or via the #Rochetrial hashtag.