AUGUSTA – A former Waterville man will spend 10 years in prison for torturing his girlfriend while keeping her prisoner for three days in an apartment in Augusta.
Robert Allan Horr, 51, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Kennebec County Superior Court to kidnapping and aggravated assault, “which manifested extreme indifference to the value of human life,” according to the indictment against Horr.
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The victim, a 58-year-old woman, told Justice Michaela Murphy that she still suffers from the effects of the trauma she endured from July 31 to Aug. 2 in the couple’s apartment on Water Street in Augusta.
“This is an extremely significant domestic violence case — one of the worst cases we’ve seen in a long time,” said acting District Attorney Alan Kelley. “These charges were the maximum we could charge under the law.”
The woman escaped to a neighbor’s home for help while Horr was asleep. She was treated at MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta for a broken wrist, cigarette burns to her legs and arm and other injuries.
She said Wednesday that Horr had asked her to marry him and that she still loved him, but did not want to see him. The woman told police that she and Horr had been in a relationship for six months.
Horr, who lived in Waterville and Skowhegan before moving to Augusta, had two psychological evaluations while he was in custody.
An affidavit by Augusta police Officer Nathan Walker lists the details of the offenses and the victim’s injuries.
The victim told Walker that Horr kept her from leaving by forcing her to stay in a back bedroom and keeping her away from windows and doors. She said Horr broke her wrist on July 31 when she tried to make food. He also punched and kicked her, breaking her false teeth.
The next day, she told police, Horr drank a gallon of coffee brandy and continued to hit her, and the next day he told her “he was going to poke her eyes out and feed them to her.”
Walker documented cuts that appeared to be finger marks around the woman’s eyes.
Police found Horr, still in the apartment, and arrested him on charges of kidnapping, aggravated assault, and domestic violence terrorizing, and on a warrant charging him with violating probation on a conviction in Somerset County.
Horr told police that he and his girlfriend had been drinking all weekend and that he blacked out when he drank and didn’t remember whether he kept the woman from leaving the apartment.
“He did tell the judge today he had zero recall,” said Horr’s attorney, Kevin Sullivan.
Charges of domestic violence terrorizing and criminal restraint were dismissed in exchange for the guilty pleas.
Kelley said some elements of the case are common to other domestic violence cases, in which the victim still has an emotional connection to the abuser.
“The victim said she still loves this man despite everything he’s done to her,” Kelley said. “This case is a good example of how extreme domestic violence can become, short of homicide.”
Kennebec Journal Staff Writer Betty Adams can be contacted at 621-5631 or at:
badams@centralmaine.com
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