Lanexa man found guilty of abduction, strangulation, assault charges

A Lanexa man who held a woman captive for nearly nine hours in her own home has been found guilty on three felony charges.

Lee Alden Mooney, 50, formerly of the 13000 block of Stage Road, received guilty verdicts on one count each of abduction, assault and battery on a family member (third offense), and strangulation during Monday afternoon’s contested trial. Misdemeanor charges of destruction of property and damaging a phone line were dismissed.

Special prosecutor Clay Blanton only had three witnesses for the trial. But those witnesses painted a picture describing Mooney’s actions on May 14.

“As we were about to go to sleep, I looked at my tablet and saw Mr. Mooney’s Facebook page open on it,” said the victim, keeping her eyes down and not looking at the defendant. “There, I saw that he was having conversations with his ex-girlfriends.

“I gently woke him up and told him that I didn’t want to be with anymore,” she continued. “That is when he got angry and went into a rage.”

Mooney refused to leave the house despite the victim’s request. When she attempted to leave, the defendant grabbed her purse and threw it across the room. According to the victim’s testimony, that is when he grabbed her wrist as she approached the back door and pushed her against it.

“He told me that I wasn’t going to leave and this is not my first kidnapping,” said the victim. “I couldn’t go anywhere. He would use his body to block my movement and everywhere I went.

“He put his hands around my neck and lifted me up,” she added. “I couldn’t breathe and he said that he didn’t care.”

The victim continued to explain the actions during that night. The victim detailed how Mooney shadowed her every movement to every room of the house. She also said that she could not physically escape him because of previous surgeries that limited her movement.

“There were times when he asked me for forgiveness and times when he would become violent again,” she added. “He would headbutt me, slap me on my legs, and my ankles.

“I played along because I thought I was going to die,” the victim said, mentioning factors of how she feared for her life. “I was in survival mode.”

At one point the victim was able to separate herself from the defendant. When she asked for a smoke break, Mooney escorted her to the porch. During a brief moment, she slipped back into the house and was able to lock and deadbolt the door, and locking Mooney outside.

“He got back in within 30-40 seconds,” she said, explaining how the defendant climbed through an unlocked window over the kitchen sink. “I had only made it about ten feet before he was right in front of me.”

Mooney again assaulted the victim, tossing her into a lawn chair that was in the home before both retired to the bedroom. While the victim laid on the bed, the defendant sat in a chair, guarding the door.

The woman said she went to sleep at 5 a.m. and woke up at 7:20 a.m. to a sleeping Mooney. She took a few steps and went to the porch before stopping to see if Mooney was following. When she realized he wasn’t, she got inside of her vehicle and drove to a relative’s house where a family member dialed 9-1-1.

Testimony from New Kent Deputy Wyatt Johnston recapped his visual recollection on how the victim looked upon his arrival, while additional sworn statements by forensic nurse Heather Mills mentioned that the injuries the victim suffered were those that could happen as a result of strangulation.

Defense attorney Melissa Guthridge’s cross examination centered around the victim’s relationship and some statements made by the victim.

“You heard testimony that she couldn’t breathe but was able to talk,” the defense attorney said to Judge B. Elliott Bondurant. “She was able to communicate with him and admitted that she slapped him for putting his hands on her.

“You have also heard from the forensic nurse that these symptoms could be something else,” Guthridge added. “The nurse was unable to give us a time frame of when these injuries occurred and there was no indication from the victim that she was unable to speak when the nurse was going over her checklist with the victim.”

After Mooney declined to testify on his behalf, Bondurant’s ruling reflected the ordeal the victim had gone through.

“Mr. Blanton’s first piece of evidence was very important,” the judge said, mentioning two guilty convictions of misdemeanor assault and battery on a family member committed in James City County. “We heard from testimony that this defendant stayed with her the whole entire time.

“The victim couldn’t even go to the bathroom without this man looking over her shoulder,” Bondurant continued. “The one thing that showed me that this was an abduction was when the victim managed to get away but the defendant climbed through the window.

“This was an assault that occurred a number of times throughout the night,” the judge concluded.

Mooney’s formal sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 23, 2017.