Carolyn Peirce, The Examiner
2008-03-05 08:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

BALTIMORE -

Rukayat Osoba said she thought a man wearing a Ledo’s pizza hat was a harmless, lost delivery man when he pulled up to her Columbia house and asked for directions

But when he grabbed her by the wrists and dragged her toward his car, the 21-year-old said she had to kick and scream to escape her alleged kidnapper.

“I was really scared. I didn’t know what to do,” Osoba testified Tuesday in Howard Circuit Court while facing her alleged attacker, Patrick McMahon, 37, of Dayton, who is on trial on kidnapping and assault charges.

Osoba testified before Judge Richard Bernhardt that she was talking on a cell phone in her driveway about 6 p.m. July 13, 2007, on Lilac Bush Lane, when McMahon pulled up in a green sedan and asked her how to get to Laurel.

After giving him directions, Osoba said McMahon asked for her name and age.

“It was very unusual and very suspicious,” she said.

Osoba said she turned to walk away, but heard the car door slam shut and McMahon say, “I’m [36], that’s not so bad is it?”

Seconds later, McMahon tried to put her in his car, Osoba said, but she struggled free and began running.

Osoba tripped. McMahon grabbed her wrists again, she said.

“He kept on pulling me, and I just kept trying to center my weight on the ground. I kicked him in the stomach. I was just screaming for help,” she said.

McMahon fled when Osoba began screaming, she said, and her older sister came out of the house moments later.

“She was shaking and nervous,” said Kafilat Osoba, 27. “She kept saying, ‘Did you see what just happened?’ ”

About 30 minutes later, Osoba said, she was telling Howard police officers what happened when she heard a familiar sound — the “knocking” noise that McMahon’s car had made.

Osoba looked up to see McMahon had returned to the neighborhood.

She began shouting that he had returned, but McMahon reversed his car and drove over the grass to flee from the police.

He was arrested later that night, according to charging documents.

McMahon scoffed and shook his head as Osoba identified him as her attacker.

He gathered with family outside of the courtroom and said his version of the story “is 100 percent different,” but his attorney, Louis Willemin, intervened before he could finish.

Willemin could not be reached for comment. The jury deliberated late into the evening.

cpeirce@baltimoreexaminer.com