Victim says she can’t remember anything in Jonassen case
By Teresa Auch Schultz tauch@post-trib.com July 16, 2012 3:44PM
Martin Jonassen
Updated: August 18, 2012 6:19AM
The federal trial of an out-of-state man accused of kidnapping a relative from her home in Missouri and taking her to an inn in Portage started Monday with a security video showing the victim, naked, running into a local liquor store on Sept. 12, 2011.
Jurors at the U.S. District Court in Hammond watched as a red Dodge car then pulled up, with a man identified as Martin Jonassen getting out, wearing nothing but jeans that he was holding up with his hands.
As the video angle changed, jurors could see the woman run down an aisle at the store, the Liquor Center on U.S. 20 and Willowcreek Road, with Jonassen following behind. As she grabbed onto the handle of a cooler door, Jonassen grabbed her and lifted her off her feet, and the two could be seen struggling. He finally dragged her out of the store, as she continued to try and grab at anything she could, and he shoved her into the car before a police officer arrived.
On the witness stand Monday, the victim, a 21-year-old woman, claimed she didn’t remember anything from the incident, which lasted about a minute. Under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill Koster, the woman — wearing a green T-shirt, navy blue gym shorts and sneakers with her curly blonde hair pulled back with a pink tie — claimed to remember nothing about her life, including her name, age and where she was born.
Question after question, the woman’s answer remained, “I don’t remember.”
Did she remember taking a trip with her father earlier that summer to Michigan, where he slept naked in the same bed with her and sexually abused her?
“I don’t remember.”
Did she remember hiding from Jonassen in a barn at her family’s home in Missouri on Sept. 11 because he was mad she was dating another man?
“I don’t remember.”
Did she remember fighting with Jonassen in her trailer a little bit later until she passed out, only to awaken to discover him loading her clothes into his car and then forcing her into the car?
“I don’t remember.”
Did she recall trying to escape the car several times, only to have Jonassen pull her back in and tie her arms and legs up?
“I don’t remember.”
She kept giving that answer as Koster asked her about statements she had allegedly made several times to police — including on Sunday night — about her ordeal, claiming Jonassen drove her through Missouri, Iowa and Illinois before stopping at the Dollar Inn on U.S. 20 in Portage, where he kept her from escaping by blocking the door and keeping her tied up. According to previous statements the victim made, Koster said, she only escaped when Jonassen had sent her to shower and, hearing him leave, she took her chance to run.
Later, after the woman had left the stand, U.S. District Judge James Moody asked if she was afraid of Jonassen.
“Definitely,” Koster said. “Everybody in her family is.”
Other witnesses, however, did remember seeing the victim run across the Dollar Inn Parking lot, U.S. 20 and then into the liquor store.
Deborah Brown, a housekeeper for Dollar Inn, said she was standing in the front lobby of the motel around 10:30 a.m. when she saw the chase.
“As I’m standing there, I see a woman running naked and a man chasing her,” Brown testified.
She watched as the woman ran across U.S. 20 and then back across, seeking safety in the liquor store. At the same time, she saw Jonassen run back to his car and drive to the liquor store parking lot, relaying the information so another employee could tell police.
“She darted across U.S. 20,” Brown said. “She didn’t even look (for traffic).”
When Brown went to shut the door to Jonassen’s room, she said, she discovered a table blocking the door, ropes tossed across a chair and the sheets pulled off the mattress.
Liquor Center employee Sanda Farley said she was in the store when the woman ran in, calling out for help.
“She was yelling, ‘help me, help me, please help me,’” Farley testified.
She continued narrating the security video, saying that when Jonassen ran in, he claimed the woman was on drugs. After he finally pulled the woman into his car, he pushed her down with his arm, Farley said.
Jonassen, who is representing himself in the trial, asked most of the witnesses if they had seen him and the woman cross state lines. He argued during his opening statement that no evidence would show the victim was forced across state lines.
He did say that he got into a fight with the woman that morning and that the two did fight.
“I regret that,” he said.
However, he claimed he didn’t want to leave her at a liquor store in the “murder capital” of the country.
The trial is expected to last a week.
