In a bizarre case that defies explanation on numerous counts, on Thursday a Houston rapper, Lee Carter, 52, was arrested for allegedly kidnapping a homeless woman and holding her captive in his garage for at least four years before she managed to get access to his computer to call rescuers, officials said.
Records do not explain why it took authorities nearly nine months to arrest the suspect, nor is there any explanation of why neighbors who are just feet away from the home, did not notice anything suspicious for such a long time.
The condition under which the 5-foot-2, 70-pound woman was held were abominable: she was found to be malnourished and “with a pungent stench,” “crusty” hair and wearing a T-shirt and shorts that “were filthy dirty,” according to prosecutors.
She told authorities that “approximately four or five years ago,” she was panhandling in Houston when Carter allegedly picked her up, saying “he would help her,” the complaint said.
For the next four or five years–she is unsure of the exact period of time that has elapsed– she was held in a converted garage whose windows had been boarded up and that included “a makeshift toilet that did not flush,” a mattress “covered in fresh vomit” and a few packages of chips and Twinkies, the affidavit said.
A Harris County District Attorney’s Office affidavit supporting the suspect’s arrest states the woman used Carter’s laptop to “communicate with 9-1-1 dispatch that she was being held against her will.” Details about how she got the laptop are not clear.
Carter is the owner of Rhyme Time Records, NBC affiliate KPRC of Houston reported, citing records. The company is based out of the same home where he is accused of holding the woman against her will, the news station reported.
Carter’s attorney said he did not know his client’s stage name or have any information about his music career.
Court filings showed Carter posted $100,000 to secure his freedom on Sunday. He was no longer in the Harris County Jail on Monday, a sheriff’s official told NBC News.
A Houston Fire Department crew came to Carter’s Perry Street home on April 7 and pried open the garage’s door to a find woman locked inside, living in horrendous conditions, prosecutors said.
Carter’s attorney, George Powell, claims that the woman is actually Carter’s domestic partner and called theirs “a romantic relationship”– though he cannot explain why a domestic partner would be living under those conditions– saying that he had just been brought on the case and had not yet seen the space in question.
“The complaining witness and him have been together for years and they have a child together,” he added.
Prosecutors had asked for a $500,000 bond before a magistrate set it at $100,000, according to the DA’s office, which declined to comment on the court’s ruling.
