Prosecutor says rape was plan

The 19-year-old who broke into a neighbor's house in south Augusta last month, only to be shot in the chest, probably had something far more sinister in mind than burglary, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

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Haynie

Given that he went into a 56-year-old woman's bedroom at about 4 a.m., covered her mouth with his hand and put a knife to her throat, his intent was rape, Assistant District Attorney Rex Myers said during a bond hearing.

"This appears to be a very disturbing type of incident," Mr. Myers said.

Justin Brent Haynie, who was living with his grandmother on Lexington Drive and working at a grocery store before his arrest, is charged with burglary, aggravated assault, kidnapping and possession of a knife during the commission of a crime. Richmond County Superior Court Judge Neal Dickert denied him bond Tuesday, after his would-be victim said she's concerned he might come back for revenge.

The April 26 shooting was the first of three incidents during a nine-day period in which Augusta residents shot intruders. One of the three - in which Army Capt. Barre Bollinger, an Iraq war veteran, shot a 29-year-old burglar with an SKS rifle - was fatal.

In court Tuesday, Mr. Haynie hardly looked like a man who'd been shot through the chest 12 days earlier. Shackled and wearing navy blue prison pajamas and sandals, he stood erect and motionless as the 56-year-old woman spoke, responding only by nodding slightly when she mentioned that she tried to get him help after shooting him.

The woman - who asked that her name not be printed - said in an interview with The Augusta Chronicle that when Mr. Haynie covered her mouth with his hand that night, she bit him, and he snarled, "I'm going to (expletive) kill you." While he was distracted, she grabbed a .357 Magnum off her night stand.

Then one of her dogs stood up and looked at them. The 9-year-old Rottweiler/Doberman mix had been asleep on the floor, along with two small dogs, and hadn't made a sound. "Get the dogs out of the room," the intruder demanded, according to the woman.

She opened the "doggie door" and called for the dogs to leave the bedroom. As the dogs trotted out, she turned around and squeezed the trigger. The gun fired, even though she'd accidently loaded it with .38-caliber rounds. The bullet went through Mr. Haynie's right side and hit her bedroom ceiling.

They fought over the gun, but when he finally wrested it from her, she grabbed a shotgun.

He ran out of the house, leaving a throw rug drenched in blood and a few bloody smears on her walls.

Sheriff's deputies found Mr. Haynie in another neighbor's yard, bleeding, the prosecutor said. The bullet missed his vital organs.

"I believe everybody should have a home security system that would trump a knife-wielding person," the woman said. "You are responsible for your own well-being, not Uncle Sam, not our whole welfare society."

Mr. Haynie's cousin, Patrick Haynie, 22, lives next door to the woman and said Mr. Haynie was hanging out with him that morning. He watched The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, then said he was walking back to his grandmother's house to watch The Godfather, Part II. He gave no indication that he was planning an assault, his cousin said.

He's since called from jail and asked him to apologize to the woman, Patrick Haynie said.

"He said he really didn't remember too much," he said. "He knows he's going to do some time."

Reach Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225 or johnny.edwards@augustachronicle.com.