Man sentenced for store clerk kidnapping, rape

August 7, 2009

ksn.com

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WICHITA, Kansas – Robert Abner, convicted of kidnapping and raping a Viola store clerk, has been sentenced for the crime and will spend more than 47 years in prison.

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Abner was convicted on 10 counts, including rape, kidnapping, sodomy and robbery for the incident that occurred in June 2008.

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He kidnapped the woman and held her for several days before dropping her off in Wichita at her minister’s house. The victim and her husband both spoke during the sentencing.

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Good. His defense at trial was that she liked it. She was in on it. He based this on the fact that she didn't fight him to get away. He's twice her size if not more. I hope he doesn't make it out.

ROBERT ABNER FOUND GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS

Abner found guilty on all counts

BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle
Photo from http://www.kansas.com/
Jaime Oppenheimer

The Wichita Eagle

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Right: Robert Abner is taken out of the courtroom after he was found guilty on all 10 counts for robbing, kidnapping and sexually assaulting Joyce Patterson last summer.
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Joyce Patterson and Larry Patterson held a press conference after a jury found Robert Abner guilty on all 10 counts for robbing, kidnapping and sexually assaulting Patterson last summer. Joyce chose not to speak at the conference.

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WICHITA - "She was on a mission."

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Larry Patterson was telling reporters how his 49-year-old wife, Joyce, responded since being robbed, kidnapped and sexually assaulted last summer while working as a Viola (Vi-OH'-lah)convenience store clerk.

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Joyce Patterson declined to speak Monday after a jury found Robert Abner guilty of all 10 charges against him. Her husband spoke at a brief news conference after the jury announced its verdict -- following about one hour of deliberation.

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Asked what he meant by "on a mission," Larry Patterson said that during his wife's abduction, "She promised herself if she got out of that, she was going to make sure he paid for what he had done."

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In great detail, she told detectives and a sexual assault nurse/examiner what her abductor had done to her. Then last week, she testified in open court for more than three hours.

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"Joyce has been strong as she could be through this," Larry Patterson said. She was the victim. But in some ways, she was on trial.

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In closing arguments Monday, one of Abner's defense lawyers, Deputy Public Defender Jama Mitchell, accused Joyce Patterson of not being a credible or consistent witness.

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Mitchell conceded that Abner had robbed Patterson, but said Patterson consented to sex and made no effort to leave Abner's rental home during four days there.

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Mitchell said Patterson had an unhappy home life and that Abner catered to her by bringing her food, drinks and cigarettes and rubbing lotion on her feet.

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Marc Bennett, the prosecutor, dismissed that contention as ridiculous, saying that Abner's home was no spa.

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The Pattersons, who have been married 27 years, sat together in the courtroom Monday holding hands. Bennett defended the Pattersons' marriage in court, saying that of the hundreds of people investigators talked to, no one said the marriage was unhappy.

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Larry Patterson said after the verdict that he understood that the public defenders have "a job to do, just like the District Attorney's Office does."

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To get guilty verdicts on every count was "phenomenal," he said. He thanked the prosecutors, the investigators who had worked on the case and women from the Wichita Area Sexual Assault Center who supported the couple.

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The jury found Abner guilty of one count of aggravated robbery, one count of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of aggravated criminal sodomy and six counts of rape. Now that Abner has been convicted, District Judge David Kaufman said he was replacing Abner's $500,000 bond with no bond, saying he considered Abner a "flight risk and danger to the community."

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Abner, 40, is set for sentencing July 10. Mitchell said her client could face 40 years in prison.
Months before the robbery, Abner had stopped at the store in Viola, in southwestern Sedgwick County, while working in the area as a carpenter, according to testimony.

Earlier Monday, in closing arguments, Bennett asked the jurors to remember: "There is a difference between submission and consent."

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According to Bennett:

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Joyce Patterson's ordeal began June 23 when Abner came into the store wearing a disguise and held what she thought was a handgun. He grabbed her by the hand and forced her out of the store. He told her to run to his car and not to look at him. He made her get down on the floor of his car.

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The defense argument that she simply went with him didn't make sense, Bennett said. Abner took her to his house in north Wichita, where he sodomized her and raped her -- six times over a couple of days, Bennett said.

A gynecological exam showed injury, but the defense team had countered that the injury was limited to a small abrasion. If she was consenting, Bennett asked, "Why does he have to hogtie her?"

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Although investigators would later recover a BB handgun from Abner's car after police arrested him in Oregon, the gun Patterson saw during the robbery looked dangerous to her, Bennett said. She "believes it's a gun, and she complies." "What choice does she have?"

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After keeping Patterson bound at times and blindfolded off and on over four days, Abner was moved by seeing her family plead on television for her safe return, and he dropped her off outside her pastor's home, according to testimony.

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In her closing argument defending Abner, Mitchell said the evidence showed that Patterson followed Abner to the car and that he couldn't understand why Patterson didn't go into the store bathroom, as he ordered, so he could make a "clean getaway."

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Once at his house, she never tried to leave or seek help, or thought about it, even though she had windows and doors to escape by and had access to a weapon nearby -- scissors on a night stand, Mitchell argued.

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After Abner dropped Patterson off, investigators asked her leading questions to get the answers they wanted, Mitchell said. Mitchell argued that Abner -- described by prosecutors as a menacing 300-pound man at the time of the robbery -- was an "overgrown adolescent" who told Patterson "fantastical stories."

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"Find him guilty for what he did," Mitchell said.

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After the jury found Abner guilty on all 10 counts, Larry Patterson said, "The system does work."

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Sentencing is set for July 10.

Abner decides not to testify in Viola case

BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle
Jaime Oppenheimer/The Wichita Eagle

WICHITA - Robert Abner told a judge late this afternoon that he has opted not to testify in his own defense to charges of robbery, kidnapping, rape and sodomy.
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The brief exchange between Abner and Judge David Kaufman came after testimony ended in Abner's trial, which began Tuesday in Sedgwick County District Court.
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The 40-year-old is accused of abducting and sexually assaulting a Viola convenience store clerk last June. Abner is accused of holding her at his north Wichita rental home for four days before dropping her off outside her family's minister's home.
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Closing arguments in the trial are scheduled for Monday morning. Then the jury will begin deliberations.
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Earlier today, Abner's sister testified that last summer he told her he had robbed a convenience store and was going to turn himself in to authorities after going to Oregon to "clear his head."
Abner was later arrested in Oregon.
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Also Friday, through their questioning, attorneys on both sides again sparred over whether the store clerk, Joyce Patterson, was forced to have sex.

Viola Kansas: Trial of Robert Abner continues; Victim testifies

Viola clerk describes abduction
BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle
via http://www.kansas.com/
Jaime Oppenheimer/The Wichita Eagle
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Robert Abner is charged with robbing, kidnapping and sexually assaulting Joyce Patterson and accused of holding her at his north Wichita rental home for about four days before releasing her. Joyce Patterson was on the witness stand for all of Thursday morning.
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WICHITA - When the armed robber ordered cashier Joyce Patterson to the bathroom of a Viola convenience store last June, she froze.
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She took a step back -- away from the bathroom.
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She was "freaking out" because she thought that if he took her to the bathroom, he would kill her, she testified Thursday in Sedgwick County District Court.
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After she hesitated, he grabbed her wrist, took her to the door of the rural store, looked around and told her to run with him to his car parked just up the road.
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But lawyers defending Robert Abner tried to show through their questioning that Patterson wasn't forced to go with him and wasn't forced to have sex with him.
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The 40-year-old Wichita man is charged with robbing, kidnapping and sexually assaulting Patterson while holding her for four days.
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The prosecution maintains that Patterson submitted to Abner because of a constant fear that he would shoot her.
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Some of her first words after the robber came into the store, wearing a disguise and holding a handgun on her, were, "Don't kill me, don't kill me," she said.
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The lead prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Marc Bennett, asked her if she had a choice whether to go with the robber.
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"No. He has the gun," she replied. "I couldn't take my eyes off the gun."
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According to Patterson:
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After he ordered her to get into the car and get down, she begged him to let her out as he drove around for an hour or more. At one point, she felt him put the gun to her side. "Just remember," he said.
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He told her he knew her daughter also worked at the store and thought both of them were cute.
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After he pulled up to his home, he blindfolded her. Once inside, he tied her up and stuffed something in her mouth. He took it out when she told him she couldn't breathe. Then he taped something, possibly a sock, over her mouth.
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"Holler if you want. Nobody's going to hear you anyway," he said.
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He told her he had a 100-pound attack dog.
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She wore a blindfold or kept her eyes closed or looked away from him. She didn't want to be able to identify him -- and told him so.
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During that first day of captivity, he told her: "We have a problem. You know who I am. You know my name." He thought she had seen his mail in the car.
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The bedroom where he kept her had a window, covered with blinds. She was afraid to try to flee because she thought he would quickly catch her -- and he had the gun.
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He told her he would have her home by 10 that first night. "I just wanted to go home," she testified. But he didn't let her go that night...
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Her disappearance triggered a wide investigation and media attention.
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She pleaded with him: Drop her off somewhere...
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At times, he asked what she wanted to eat and drink, and he brought her things: Dr Pepper, Cap'n Crunch, ham sandwiches and Virginia Slims to smoke. He tied her up when he went out for groceries.
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Watching television
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He brought her out to the living room and hung something between them so she couldn't see him while she watched TV and he played computer "war games."
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He talked a lot. He told her he was hiding from the CIA, she said.
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He let her watch a newscast where she saw her family and the family's minister plead for her safe return.
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"I'm going to miss you when you're gone," he told her. She wasn't sure what that meant...
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He had taken her from the store on a Monday afternoon. By Thursday, he said he was going to give her clothes back and drop her off at the pastor's home. But she was nervous.
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He might be taking her somewhere to kill her, she thought. They drove off, with her blindfolded. She still hadn't seen his face.
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Then suddenly, he said, "Get out. Get out." She stepped out of the car, took off the blindfold and tossed it behind her. The man had left her outside the pastor's home.
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She rang the minister's door bell twice. "I was scared he wasn't home," she testified. When the pastor came to the door, stunned that she was there, she told him she wanted to go home.
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When it was the defense team's turn to question Patterson, Deputy Public Defender Jama Mitchell focused on instances where Abner did something for Patterson. When Patterson said that Abner rubbed lotion on her feet, Mitchell repeated the words as a question, "Put lotion on your feet?"
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Mitchell asked Patterson how she reacted during the sex. "I was just lying there, waiting for it to be over," Patterson said.
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Abner's sister testifies...

Abner's sister, Sharon Abner, testified that he admitted to her that he had robbed and kidnapped a store clerk...
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Sharon Abner said she asked her brother why Patterson didn't leave his home when he left to get food. He didn't answer, she said.

read complete article here

Robert Abner Case

Defense in Robert Abner case claims clerk consented to sex

BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle
May 27, 2009

Jaime Oppenheimer
The Wichita Eagle

Robert Abner sits in Judge David Kaufman's courtroom during his trial in Sedgwick County District Court. He is charged with robbing, kidnapping and sexually assaulting Joyce Patterson and accused of holding her at his north Wichita rental home for about four days before releasing her.

Deputy Public Defender Jama Mitchell delivers her opening statement in Robert Abner's trial in Sedgwick County District Court. Abner is charged with robbing, kidnapping and sexually assaulting Joyce Patterson and accused of holding her at his north Wichita rental home for about four days before releasing her.

District Attorney Marc Bennett delivers his opening statement in Robert Abner's trial in Sedgwick County District Court. Abner is charged with robbing, kidnapping and sexually assaulting Joyce Patterson and accused of holding her at his north Wichita rental home for about four days before releasing her.

WICHITA - Robert Abner is the person on trial -- charged with robbing, kidnapping and sexually assaulting a Viola convenience store clerk while holding her for about four days last June. She clearly is the victim, prosecutors say.

But now that the defense team has its chance to speak out in court, it is attacking her credibility, contending she was a "participant" in sex with Abner.


In opening statements in Sedgwick County District Court on Wednesday, the prosecution argued that Joyce Patterson feared what Abner would do to her -- and her family -- and that although she submitted to him to survive, she never consented to sex. The defense argued that her demeanor and actions showed she consented.

Abner, 40, faces 10 charges, including six counts of rape and two counts of sodomy -- crimes the prosecution says occurred while he held her for about four days at his rental home in north Wichita, before leaving her outside her family's pastor's home...

During legal arguments while the jury was outside the courtroom Wednesday, District Judge David Kaufman and Deputy District Attorney Marc Bennett signaled that Patterson could testify:

• That Abner told her he was not going to kill her but that he had killed lots of other people.
• That Abner said he had a criminal record and had been in jail.
• That he told her his fingerprints were "in the system."

Deputy Public Defender Jama Mitchell argued that any such statements from Patterson shouldn't be introduced at trial because they would be "extremely prejudicial" to Abner and not necessary to prove the case.

But Kaufman ruled such statements would be admissible and said they were "highly relevant" to an argument over whether Patterson's "actions or inactions" showed she consented and whether she reacted out of fear.

In the opening statements, both sides provided new details about what allegedly happened during those four days last June.

Bennett, the lead prosecutor, told the jury that on a slow afternoon, an armed robber wearing a wild, bushy wig and sunglasses came into the rural store in southwestern Sedgwick County. The robber came up behind Patterson and told her, "Give me your money."

And according to Bennett:
When the robber told her to "get to the bathroom," she froze.
If he takes her to another room, she thought, "I'm dead."
After she hesitated, he grabbed her arm and said, "Let's go."

The robber was heavyset. Patterson is a small woman. He dragged her outside and behind the store to a car and told her to get in and stay down on the floorboard. The car was missing the front passenger seat. While she remained there in a fetal position, the abductor drove and drove, for maybe an hour, at times swerving as if to confuse her sense of direction.

During the long drive, he put a gun to her side and said, "Remember." Investigators later found a BB gun in Abner's car.

After they stopped, he blindfolded her, took her into a home and "hog-tied" her. At times, he kept her bound with duct tape and plastic zip ties or tied to him while they slept.

She didn't look at the man's face and pointed it out to him because she was afraid that he would harm her or her family if she could identify him, Bennett said.

The abductor told her he had noticed her daughter, who also worked at the convenience store and that maybe Patterson could persuade him to let her go.

"She knows what he wants," Bennett told the jurors, and continued with his narrative:

She didn't want to have sex with him, but he forced himself on her, repeatedly. At one point, she asked him: "Why don't you just kill me?"

When he saw the minister and her family plead on TV for her safe return, he apologized to her and said, "I won't do this again." But he kept her about two more days before leaving her outside the minister's home in southeast Wichita. Bennett said an examination of Patterson showed some injury.

After releasing Patterson, Abner drove to Lawrence -- before being arrested in Oregon -- and told his relative that he did "something stupid" and admitted to robbing and kidnapping a store clerk, Bennett said.

"I've been thinking about doing this for a while," Abner told the relative, Bennett said.
When it was her turn to introduce the defense's position, Mitchell described Patterson's involvement in a very different way. "She put herself in the car," Mitchell said.

And according to Mitchell: Abner told Patterson "we're going to get you home." While at his home, he went out and got her food and asked what brand of cigarettes she smoked. He catered to her. "Most of the time, she is not bound," Mitchell told the jurors.

There was a window in Abner's bedroom and in an attached bathroom, "but she stays there," Mitchell said. "Not one time during these four days did she make any attempt to leave the house.... She never tried to scream." During the sex, Patterson was "not protesting, she is not resisting, she is not objecting," Mitchell said.

So there is no evidence of rapes, Mitchell said. Mitchell said Patterson's body showed only a "tiny" abrasion and some redness -- what can occur during regular intercourse. "She wasn't forced to stay there," Mitchell said.
"She is a participant."

Before Abner walked into the store, Patterson's life had been stressful because she had an unhappy marriage and was behind on bills, Mitchell said. As for Abner, Mitchell said, "This turned into something that he did not anticipate."

In testimony later Wednesday, Steve Sherbenou, the pastor, testified about finding Patterson at his door -- where Abner had left her. "She indicated she was happy to be away from him, and she wanted to go home to her husband, Larry, and her family," Sherbenou testified.

Patterson rebuts defense claims that she was willing participant

BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle
May 27, 2009

WICHITA - Joyce Patterson told a Sedgwick County jury this morning that she feared for her life during a four-day ordeal last June after she was abducted from the convenience store in Viola where she was working.

She testified against Robert Abner, 40, who is charged with robbing, kidnapping and sexually assaulting her. Her hour-long testimony rebutted statements by the defense that she was a willing participant in her abduction.

Patterson told the jury that she begged Abner not to have sex with her, but he did. After he took her to a rental house, he told her she could holler all she wanted, but nobody could hear her, she said.

Deputy District Attorney Marc Bennett asked Patterson why she didn't try to escape.
She replied: "'Cause I knew he still had the gun."

Viola Kansas: Trial begins for alledged kidnapper/rapist Robert Abner

Right: Robert Abner

Trial starts in Viola woman's abduction
BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle
http://www.kansas.com/

It is an unusual case that drew wide media attention: In June 2008, according to authorities and testimony at a preliminary hearing, an armed robber abducted Joyce Patterson, then 48, from the Viola convenience store where she worked as a clerk.

Her friends and family and people who didn't know her prayed for her safe return.

The abductor held her for about four days at his north Wichita home, where he sexually assaulted her, authorities said.

Then the abductor dropped her off at her family's minister's home before going to Oregon, where he was arrested, authorities said.

Jury selection in Robert Abner's trial began Tuesday and will continue this morning in Sedgwick County District Court. Patterson is expected to testify as early as late today but more likely on Thursday. It's not clear whether Abner will testify.

Abner, 39 at the time he was charged last summer, faces 10 charges: aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping, two counts of aggravated criminal sodomy and six counts of rape.
Before his arrest, Abner had worked as a carpenter.

In court Tuesday, lawyers on both sides tried to trim a pool of 45 prospective jurors to 12 people who can form an impartial jury. For several hours, a prosecutor and defense lawyer questioned the people on whether they could be fair and consider only evidence presented at trial.

The lead prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Marc Bennett, asked if they had an expectation of what Patterson's demeanor should be on the witness stand -- if they expected her to cry, for example. Would, he asked, they "need to see she's emotionally scarred" before they would consider her a credible witness?

Bennett also asked them if they had been a victim of a sex crime or knew someone who had been or if they knew someone accused of such a crime. Bennett said he needed to know of anything that would keep them from impartially weighing evidence.

Both Bennett and Lacy Gilmour, an assistant public defender, asked jurors how much they knew about the case from the media. Many of them said they saw something about the case.
"Sometimes you don't get both sides of the story," Gilmour said.

And one by one, she asked them if they were leaders or followers. Most said they were leaders or a mix of the two.

Viola Kansas Trial begins for Robert Abner accused in store clerk kidnapping
May 27, 2009
http://www.ksn.com/

WICHITA, Kansas -- Opening statements began in the trial of Robert Abner -- the man accused of kidnapping a Viola store clerk last summer. Abner faces 10 counts, including kidnapping, rape and sodomy.

No one is disputing that Robert Abner kidnapped the Viola store clerk and kept her tied up at times at his Wichita home for four days, where the two had sexual relations several times.

Prosecutors say she was kidnapped and raped, but defense attorneys maintain that the clerk went along willfully and consented to the sex because she was stressed out, in a bad marriage and didn't want to go back home.

!!!! omg this pisses me off. That is really his defense? She wanted it? He kidnapped her from her job! He had stalked her enough to know she would be there late at night by herself. That is probably the only store open in Viola all night. What--did he just get lucky to find a woman who would abandon her job and husband to go "do-it" with some random customer? Good god.

Over the time that the woman and Abner spent together, prosecutors say the woman went out of her way to not look at Abner's face even keeping a T-shirt over her face, telling Abner she didn't want to be able to describe him to police. She felt it that would make Abner feel safer and he would let her go home.

Prosecutors say she feared for her life the entire time. The defense, however, says she could have left anytime she wanted to.

"There is a difference between consent and submission," said prosecutor Marc Bennett. "She wasn't forced to stay with him, she wasn't forced to have sex," said defense attorney Jama Mitchell. "Certainly there is a difference between consent and submission. There is a fine line between submission and permission."

Testimony resumes in the trial Thursday when the clerk is expected to take the stand.

Jama Mitchell, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Just a note. I usually do not print the names of victims, however, Joyce went back to work after she was released and spoke for an article in The Wichita Eagle, identifying herself and thanking all of the people who had looked for her and who still watch out for her. She said people come into the store and say something nice to her, or even ask if they can hug her. She said this would not keep her from living her life. Bless you girl.

Viola is southwest of Wichita, just south of the intersection of Kansas highways 42 and 49. The population hovers around 200, there are seven streets, including the highway. Check it out here Viola, Kansas.

Kidnap victim testifies about her abduction, Robert Abner

September 12, 2008

Sedgwick County, Kansas

BY RON SYLVESTER
The Wichita Eagle

A man walked into the Viola convenience store where Joyce Patterson worked as a clerk and demanded money.

"You kidding me?" she remembered asking. Then she saw he had a gun.

That response would surprise no one who heard her calmly testify about being kidnapped and sexually assaulted for four days as she faced her accused attacker, Robert Abner, in court on Thursday.

After hearing Patterson's testimony during a preliminary hearing, Sedgwick County District Judge Robb Rumsey ordered Abner to stand trial on armed robbery, kidnapping, rape and sodomy charges.

Abner pleaded not guilty, and his public defender, Jama Mitchell, argued that Patterson was a willing participant.

Patterson, 48, said she was working her regular shift, noon to 10 p.m., on June 23 at the General Station near Viola, about 20 miles southwest of Wichita. She testified she noticed a man walk into the store. After he came up behind her and pointed a gun wrapped in a white cloth, she began handing him cash out of the register.

"I said, 'Don't kill me, don't kill me,' " she testified. "Then he took my hand and we went out the door."

"Run," she remembered him saying. On cross-examination she said she couldn't run in her flip-flops, so he pulled her along until they reached his car. The man opened the door for her, but she noticed there was no passenger seat in the car.

"I ended up on my knees with my head toward the floor," she said. They drove what seemed like a long time, she said, then the car stopped.

Patterson felt the gun press into her ribs and heard him say: "Just remember." Then he blindfolded her and led her to the house. Patterson said the man led her into the bedroom and pushed her onto the bed. He then tied her hands behind her back and tied her hands to her feet.

He also asked her what kind of cigarettes she smoked, what she liked to eat and drink and then went to the store to buy those, she said.

She asked the man whether he was going to take her home. "Persuade me," she heard him say, meaning she would have to have sex with him to guarantee her safety. "If I do, will you let me go?" she recalled asking him. He said he would, so she did.

Then he turned on the TV, she said, where reporters talked about the missing woman and flashed her picture across the screen, asking for help in finding her. That was a Monday night.

By Thursday, she was still at the house, and he'd had sex with her repeatedly. "Did you want to do those acts?" prosecutor Marc Bennett asked. "No," Patterson said.

At one point, the man went to sleep for hours, but Patterson said he tied their hands together.

By Thursday, he was apologizing. "I'm sorry," she heard him say. "What happened shouldn't have happened."

The man saw the pastor of Patterson's church on television, pleading for her return. The man looked up the pastor's address and drove her to his house. "He said he wanted to make sure I got home safely," Patterson testified.

Throughout the four days, Patterson testified, the man demanded that she not look at him. She told the judge she was kept in a dark room. She said she never got a good look at his face.
After her pastor called police, Patterson was examined at a Wichita hospital. Swabs were taken, then tested for DNA.

Bennett said the DNA matched Abner.

Kidnapping, rape suspect can stand trial

Wichita, Kansas
BY FRED MANN
The Wichita Eagle

A Sedgwick County judge Thursday found Robert Abner competent to stand trial in the kidnapping and rape of a Viola convenience store clerk.

Judge Eric Yost set a preliminary hearing for Sept. 11.

Abner, 39, is charged with one count of aggravated robbery, one count of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of aggravated criminal sodomy and six counts of rape.

The clerk was released outside her family's pastor's home about three days after she disappeared in June. Abner allegedly had held her at his north Wichita house before leaving town.

Abner was arrested in early July in Springfield, Ore., after authorities received a tip from a resident he had called from a motel there.

Deputy public defender Jama Mitchell had contended that Abner has mental problems that prevent him from adequately defending himself against the charges.

Abner, who appeared in court, was evaluated last month by Comcare, the county's community mental health program, and found competent to stand trial.