“I can still (remember) the smell, the sweat. Everything. I have to relive it every moment, over and over again.”
Those are the words of one of three women allegedly kidnapped and sexually assaulted by Donnell D. J. McMullen, 34, of Springfield. He was arraigned Thursday in Clark County Common Pleas Court on nine counts of kidnapping and seven counts of rape.
While he pleaded not guilty, the Clark County Prosecutor’s Office asked that McMullen’s bond be raised to $250,000 because of the severity of the charges. Judge Douglas Rastatter granted that request.
According to county Prosecutor Amy Smith, McMullen allegedly raped and kidnapped three women. Two of the cases date back to May, and one was reported in October. DNA evidence, along with good suspect descriptions by victims along with a photo lineup, helped officers arrest McMullen, Smith said. While Smith said some of the DNA evidence is still being processed, he was indicted by a county grand jury this week.
In an exclusive interview with the Springfield News-Sun, the 23-year-old in an alleged rape on Oct. 23 said she was walking on South Yellow Springs Street near West High Street at about 1:10 a.m. when a man pulled up in a van, got out, grabbed her hair and forced her inside the vehicle.
“(He had) a knife at my throat, telling me if I try to escape in any way I wasn’t going to make it out alive,” the woman said through tears. “I was in shock. I was scared. I was just doing whatever I was told, that way I can see my family again.”
Two similar attacks were reported in May. A 27-year-old Bellefontaine woman told police she was kidnapped and raped May 6 at or near High and Race streets, according to a police report. On May 16, a 27-year-old Lima woman told investigators she was working as a prostitute when she was approached by a man in a van in the area of Selma Road and East Street, according to court records. After she agreed to sex, she told investigators the man drove to an alley behind a store in the 1500 block of East Main Street, brandished a kitchen knife and forced her to have sex.
McMullen remains in the Clark County Jail pending further court appearances. Even with him behind bars, one of the women he’s accused of assaulting said she’ll always live with the pain and fear of what happened.
“It doesn’t matter if that man gets 25 years. In 25 years, you know, I’ll be 50 and I’ll still have to live with that,” she said.
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