Boating trip turns to nightmare for woman brutalized for days by boyfriend, charges say
A 60-year-old University Place man is being held in jail on $1 million bail for allegedly kidnapping his girlfriend on a sailboat, then beating and sexually assaulting her while they boated offshore.
James Ray Wilson was charged Wednesday in Pierce County Superior Court with first-degree kidnapping, first-degree rape, three counts of second-degree assault and two counts of felony harassment.
Pleas of not guilty were entered on his behalf at arraignment Wednesday afternoon. Commissioner Barbara McInvaille set bail. According to court records, he has three or more prior convictions that were considered violent offenses.
Tacoma Police Department officers responded Tuesday evening to a boat launch for a report of domestic violence with a weapon, according to charging documents. Officers talked to a 43-year-old woman who was sitting on a boat with severe bruising on her face and throat. She told police she’d been offshore with Wilson since Friday, and she described how he held her against her will, beat her and threatened to kill her over the course of several days.
The woman said she’d been in a relationship with Wilson for nearly a year, and he invited her to live on his boat at the beginning of July because she was homeless. In a pretrial services report, Wilson said he lives on his sailboat docked in University Place, and he receives supplemental security income.
It’s unclear where the two went on the boat or exactly how long they were out. The woman reported she’d been on the boat since Friday, but she and Wilson later told police they were on the boat for three days. Charging documents only described their whereabouts as offshore.
The two argued the first night they were offshore, the woman told police, and she said they fell asleep afterward. She allegedly awoke to Wilson slapping the back of her head, shaking her and pulling out chunks of her hair. The woman said Wilson choked her until she lost consciousness.
While they were on the boat, Wilson allegedly punched her repeatedly, burned her with a “torch” multiple times and threatened to kill her. After the woman was brought to Tacoma General Hospital, forensic investigators noted bruises all over her body, including from her upper chest to her chin, her head, both legs, her left arm, back, buttocks and both her hands. She also had 12 burns the size of a quarter on her side, left leg and left arm.
“Wilson threatened to kill [the victim] by ‘holding a red folding knife to her leg and throat, telling her that he was going to cut her up into little pieces and dump the remains of her body on an island,’” prosecutors wrote in charging papers. “Wilson later told [the victim] that he would ‘tie her up to the anchor of the boat and throw her overboard.’”
At the hospital, the woman told officers Wilson sexually assaulted her, threatening to beat her if she didn’t have sex with him, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause. Officers later found DNA in bedsheets on the boat.
Wilson was arrested after officers spoke with the woman and called for medical transport. A police dog led officers on a trail that led to Owen Beach from an Anthony’s seafood restaurant, according to the probable cause document, and officers found him hiding in a bush 25-40 feet up a hillside.
After he was arrested, Wilson allegedly admitted to taking the woman out on his boat for three days and said they got in a verbal and physical altercation. Records state the defendant admitted to burning and assaulting her, saying he lost control and made a mistake.
