On Monday, Remone Jilantai Houchens, 19, who is accused of breaking into a home on May 22, and brutally beating an 87-year-old grandmother, appeared in a Louisa County courtroom for a preliminary hearing. His trial is set to start in early December.
The victim, Lois Rosson, was punched in the face repeatedly, and left blind in one eye. Prosecutors allege that Houchens also groped the woman and licked her face.
Houchens, an alleged member of the Bloods street gang, has given police two conflicting accounts of the crime.
Houchens originally told investigators that he was running from Crips gang members and simply “fell through” Rosson’s door. He also told Louisa County Sheriff’s Detective Scott Renalds that he never hurt Rosson.
According to the interview transcript, Houchens said: “And you got to believe, and this from the bottom of my heart. I wasn't in the house to hurt no one. I promise.”
He continued: “I kept saying -- I was like, 'Look. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just trying to' -- but she won't -- it was like she wasn't hearing me.”
Houchens claimed Rosson fell and hurt herself.
Four days later, he told detective Lt. Howard Porter a different story.
Houchens told Porter that he and a friend broke into Rosson’s home with the intention of burglarizing the property, and his supposed cohort “pushed her over.”
Houchens said: “It was basically in and out, but really, I helped her up and told her I wasn't there to hurt her, you know.”
“She already old,” he said. “You won't -- you can blow her over. You know what I'm saying? And that's not my style. Anybody know that's not my style.”
When he was taken into custody, Houchens clearly had cuts and bruises on his knuckles and a scratch on the side of his face.
Houchens is charged with felony aggravated malicious wounding, robbery and burglary with the intent to commit robbery.
DNA evidence linked Houchens to the crime scene, as he apparently cut himself on broken glass in Rosson’s home.
At the time of the assault, Houchens was already free on bond on a felony charge of having carnal knowledge of a 13-year-old child.
Comments
Give him the death penalty. I don't want my tax dollars paying his room and board.
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