He endured 30 hours of torment inside homeless man's tent, police say

He spent 30 hours bound in a tent, tormented and abused by a homeless man who’d offered to share methamphetamine.

The nightmare started early Sunday after the victim became separated from a friend at a concert and found himself wandering River Road in Puyallup.

With no wallet or cell phone, the man asked for help from a group of homeless people. A 42-year-old transient befriended him, offering drugs and a place to sleep.

The man accepted. He even offered to help the homeless man move some of his belongings when they awoke the next day.

That’s when the homeless man began punching him with his fists and a knife sheath, court records show.

The victim “tried to fight back but the defendant was too big,” according to charging papers. “He thought he was going to die because no one else was around.”

The homeless man dragged him into a tent, where he bound the victim’s wrists and allegedly spent the next 30 hours physically and sexually assaulting him.

He laid on the victim when he slept so the man couldn’t sneak away. He licked his face and forced him to eat peanut butter while he chewed on parts of the victim’s body, records show.

Eventually, the victim was allowed to step outside to smoke a cigarette and made a run for it. He went through a marsh and thickets of thorny bushes before reaching a road and flagging down help.

Puyallup police said the victim’s injuries backed up his story and the homeless man has been accused of several rapes in the past. He was arrested and officers said they found two knives, rope and peanut butter in his tent.

“Law enforcement was told (the homeless man) preys on a person’s fear and they are all afraid of him,” records show.

Pierce County prosecutors charged him with first-degree rape, first-degree kidnapping, second-degree assault and felony harassment.

The man has a 2016 assault conviction for biting and choking others in a homeless camp, as well as swinging a hatchet at them.

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