Richmond man convicted in bizarre abduction of girlfriend

A man faces a lengthy prison term after being convicted yesterday on charges that he bound his girlfriend, put her in the trunk of his car, drove her around, and opened the lid to show her off to a friend.

George Washington III is to be sentenced Jan. 27 by Richmond Circuit Judge Bradley B. Cavedo, who convicted Washington of two counts of abduction, one of assault, and one of domestic assault.

Washington, 40, a felon whose criminal history includes being cited for violating protective orders, faces two to 10 years in prison on each of the abduction convictions and up to 12 months on each of the assault convictions.

Yesterday's trial included two hours of testimony, much of it from the woman with whom he shared a house in the 3000 block of Stockton Street in South Richmond. She said a series of small arguments throughout the day on April 23 led to Washington shoving her into a room and slamming the door.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch is withholding the woman's name to protect her identity.

"The first thing he told me was he was going to kill me tonight -- but before he killed me, he was going to torture me," the woman said, trembling and sniffling throughout her testimony.

She said Washington punched her in the head twice, threw two kitchen knives at her from across a bedroom -- missing both times -- and bound her wrists with telephone cord before he dragged her into a bathroom, where he tied her to the base of a sink.

She heard Washington go outside, drive his car to the back door and then return to the bathroom, where he bound her feet with telephone cord, untied her from the sink, then dragged her out to his car and put her into the trunk.

After she was driven around, the woman said, the trunk opened and Washington displayed her to one of his friends.

"He told his friend he got me, now he was going to kill me tonight," she said. "And the trunk closed."

The woman said Washington began driving again before pulling to a halt, followed a short while later by the sound of screeching tires and police ordering Washington out of the car. Washington's friend had called police, and Henrico County officers found him in Richmond's East End near the county line.

Washington, the last of seven witnesses to testify, said he had been drinking heavily throughout a day in which the couple's verbal confrontations touched on such subjects as infidelity, alcohol, smoking and family commitments.

Under cross-examination from Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Julie E. McConnell, Washington admitted abducting his girlfriend.

"I did what I did," he said. "I didn't want it to go this far."

The charges Washington faced at trial included one count of attempted murder, but Cavedo ruled that there was insufficient evidence to support a conviction.

Cavedo said Washington was "clearly in control" of his victim throughout the ordeal of more than two hours but never seemed to act in a way that would have suggested he was committed to killing her. Cavedo noted, for example, that after Washington threw two knives that missed the victim, he could have followed up by stabbing her, but elected not to.

"He could have killed her at any moment if that was his real intent," the judge said.

Contact Joe Macenka at (804) 649-6804 or .