A Scranton man will stand trial on charges he raped, choked and stabbed his friend in Moosic in December, but not on the attempted homicide charge levied against him, a preliminary hearing determined Monday.
Moosic police charged Charles Bray, 42, on Dec. 15 with 13 counts, including attempted homicide and rape, after a woman reported to authorities at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital that he had choked, raped and stabbed her in a Moosic mobile home park on Dec. 13.
The assault occurred after Mr. Bray, a passenger in the woman's vehicle, asked her to make a an unplanned stop on their way from Wilkes-Barre to Scranton. After she stopped the GMC Envoy in an empty lot in the mobile home park, the woman testified Monday, Mr. Bray left the vehicle to meet someone who owed him money.
When he came back about five minutes later, he opened the rear driver's side door, told the woman to "look at this" and then, she testified, "grabbed my throat and put a knife to my neck" when she turned around.
"He grabbed my larynx so hard he crushed it," she said.
The Times-Tribune does not identify victims of sexual assault.
Mr. Bray then had the woman slide into the front passenger seat, took her clothes off and climbed into the back seat, where he forced her to perform oral sex on him briefly while he pulled her hair and held the knife to her throat, she testified.
The woman said Mr. Bray then told her to get in the back seat, at which point he tried to rape her but could not maintain an erection. Angered by this, Mr. Bray stabbed the woman twice in her back, then continued to try to rape her, which he only partially completed, the woman testified.
Afterward, Mr. Bray got behind the wheel of the Envoy with the victim, still naked and bleeding, in its passenger seat and drove aimlessly until stopping for gas in Scranton at a Sunoco station at 234 S. Main Ave.
Before stopping at the gas station, he threatened to kill the woman if she told anyone about the assault, she testified.
He also called her a "tease" and said she had been "blowing him off" for three years, leading to the assault, she testified.
At the gas station, Mr. Bray went inside to buy an iced tea and came out with some napkins he put on the victim's wounds, she testified.
After putting gas in the Envoy, Mr. Bray drove back to Wilkes-Barre and left the vehicle and the victim; she drove to the home of a friend, who took her to the hospital.
Attorney Joseph Kalinowski, Mr. Bray's public defender, did not call any witnesses Monday but did argue to the judge that the prosecution had failed to prove that Mr. Bray intended to kill the victim - the basis of the attempted homicide charge.
Mr. Bray's holding the knife to the victim's throat "goes hand-in-hand with trying to subdue somebody," Mr. Kalinowski said. "The intent was not to kill her."
Magisterial District Judge Paul Ware held all charges against Mr. Bray for court with the exception of the attempted homicide charge, which was dismissed.
A formal arraignment is scheduled for 9 a.m. March 15. Mr. Bray remains in Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $750,000 bail.
Contact the writer: domalley@timesshamrock.com, @domalleyTT on Twitter