GRETNA, La. — Warning: Some of the contents of the story are graphic in nature.
A Jefferson Parish jury was so moved by the horrifying details of a case where a man was accused of beating, sexually assaulting, kidnapping and imprisoning a woman he had a romantic relationship with that after finding him guilty, they asked to be allowed to return to the courtroom on the day he is sentenced.
The jury deliberated for only about an hour before finding 60-year-old Darryl Vinson guilty of brutalizing the 48-year-old victim over a three-day period in 2021.
The testimony in the case was graphic and hard to hear and a sexual assault nurse who examined the victim said it was “one of the most severe (cases) that I’ve seen.”
He will be sentenced June 15.
According to testimony, Vinson met the victim outside of a Gretna-area drug store and became friends with her and the relationship became romantic.
At some point he began accusing the victim of cheating on him and that’s when prosecutors say the abuse began.
Graphic testimony included the fact that Vinson hogtied the victim and made her sleep naked on a cold tile floor in January when it was cold. He stabbed her and cut her several times, forced her to eat cat food, injected her with drugs and inserted a pistol into her body.
She was strangled several times and lost consciousness at least once. The other details are just as bad.
She required 12 days of hospitalization, four of those in the ICU, and her injuries included brain bleeding, a fractured eye socket, fractured ribs, a bruised lung and other injuries to her neck, wrists and ankles.
Vinson’s attorney questioned some of the victim’s accounts of what happened and said that both of them battled with substance abuse problems.
