A suspect has been captured for a middle-of-the-night burglary and violent assault inside a woman’s apartment off Berckmans Road last week in Augusta.
David Wayne Drake Jr., 46, of Columbia, S.C., was charged Tuesday with burglary, kidnapping and aggravated assault.
The 27-year-old woman told authorities that Drake got inside her apartment on Gouchester Road at 3 a.m. June 24 through a unsecured back door. She heard her dog whimpering and saw Drake dressed in a hoodie waiting on her. She said Drake grabbed her by the throat and squeezed every time she tried to make a noise, asking her if she wanted to breathe.
He allegedly tied her arms behind her back with zip-ties that he had brought with him, according to warrants. The victim said the suspect forced her up the stairs and into a bedroom inside the apartment, where she worried he would rape her, a sheriff’s report says.
“The accused did utilize both hands to wrap around said victims neck and squeezed until the victim nearly lost consciousness,” an arrest warrant says
A warrant lists the man as 5’9” tall and 240 pounds with a listed address on Fairlamb Avenue in Columbia, S.C.
The victim told authorities that she knew Drake as a regular customer at her workplace. She said he was someone who she had received rides from in Columbia, S.C., and she spent time at his home in South Carolina. But the woman said she had not seen Drake in a year and a half.
She got Drake to leave her house after she rebuked his requests to leave with him. She then contacted authorities.
Drake was booked into the Charles B. Webster Detention Center a week later, where he was being held Wednesday without bond.
Drake has no previous record in Columbia, S.C., or in Richmond County, according to a search of online records.
