Woman describes being drugged, burned, stabbed during night of 'prolonged torture'

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following story contains court testimony that may be disturbing to readers

A young woman described to the judge Tuesday the horrifying night when she says Gary Levar held her captive in his home, torturing and terrorizing her for hours.

She described being burned with a torch, struck with a bat and golf clubs, stabbed with a spear gun, drugged and forced to ingest substances on Sept. 29, 2017.

The 21-year-old's testimomy detailed how she had been sexually assaulted, how he had urinated on her, and used pliers to tear out her nose ring.

The complainant's identity is protected by a court--ordered publication ban.

Levar, 49, has pleaded not guilty to 16 charges, including forcible confinement, administering a noxious substance, numerous counts of assault with a weapon, sexual assault and uttering threats.

Superior Court Justice Edward Gareau heard the complainant had gone to Levar's Patrick Street home to purchase drugs and hang out with friends - something she had done numerous times before that evening.

"I was using every day, mainly crack," she explained to prosecutor Heidi Mitchell, indicating she had bought .8 of a gram of the drug, which was a large amount for her.

She told the court she recalled Levar locking her in his-second-floor bedroom, and accusing her of stealing his drugs or switching them, because they "looked different and didn't cook right."

Things began to escalate, and he hit her on the leg with an aluminum baseball bat or a golf club.

"It happened very quickly," and as Levar was "telling me his scary theories he stabbed me (in the right leg) with his spear gun."

Levar demanded to know where his money was, and struck her thighs multiple times with a golf club, as well as her arms, causing "excruciating" pain, the woman said.

There was so much going on that night, she told Mitchell, adding everything became jumbled in her mind after Levar forced her to drink a liquid in a Cherry Sprite bottle.

The woman said she was fine for 10 to 15 minutes.

"The last thing I remember was sitting on a couch" in his bedroom and "I didn't know what was going on."

She recalled Levar opening a bag of Molly (a form of the drug MDMA), then forcing her to take a golf-ball sized rock and chew it, after she'd asked what he had done to her.

The drug burned her tongue and throat, she said.

"I tried to spit it out, but he hit me (on the shoulder) with the bat, so I chewed and swallowed it."

Insisting crack cocaine was the only drug she voluntarily consumed that night, the woman said "I didn't know what was going on and I was under the influence of a drug I didn't take."

The witness said another woman was in the room throughout the night, and at one point Levar suggested she "choose a punishment for me."

"He (then) grabbed pliers and ripped my nose ring out," she told the assistant Crown attorney. 

"It hurt very much, but the beatings he was giving me hurt more," she said, adding she had begged him to please stop.

As Levar, who had also used crack, continued to make accusations about his drugs and demanded his money back, he had her kneel down and put her hand on a stool near his bed, the woman told the judge.

She testified that he then took a hammer, heated the metal end on a candle, and attempted to hit her hand.

"I kept moving my hand when he was close to hitting it," he got angry, and "kicked me in the face," she said.

The woman also recalled Levar chasing her around the room with a torch, burning her breasts, face and arms, asking where his stuff was and threatening to kill her.

Describing his actions as "prolonged torture," she said "everything is pretty blurry to me" since she had lost and regained consciousness a number of times.

The court heard she remembered waking up to Levar, standing over her, and urinating on her head and face.

"He said 'wake up bitch,'" she told Gareau, wiping tears from her eyes.

The next thing the complainant said she recalls is Levar telling her "pull down your pants bitch" and laughing at her.

She again lost consciousness, and when she came to, she was sitting on a couch in the bedroom.

"I was trying to talk, but I couldn't. It sounded like a gurgling noise," she said. "I was saying 'I'm going to die, I'm going to die.' It wasn't coming out and he was laughing at me."

The woman testified that she felt like she was having a seizure, and couldn't control her body.

When this was happening, she said the other woman told Levar "I was just faking and that's why he threw a bottle at me."

"I was trembling, fell off the couch. I couldn't talk or do anything after that."

She described another incident where she awoke to find Levar cutting off her hair with a pair of scissors.

Another time, she said, she regained consciousness when she heard a loud bang as he dropped a large saw on the floor to wake her up.

"He was saying 'are you ready to go home baby,'" grabbed her foot and dragged her toward the saw, and positioned her hand under it.

"I don't remember anything after that," she told the court.

She recalled waking up in the morning, seeing Levar and the other woman asleep on the bed, and again falling unconscious.

"I had no shirt or bra on . . . I sat up, tried to get up to leave and I fell back down."

The woman said she awoke again about 4 p.m., feeling "traumatized, sore, very emotional and scared."

One of Levar's associates was standing over her, asked if she was all right and told her to get dressed and come downstairs, the court heard.

Levar was acting normal when she went into the living room, but told her she couldn't leave.

"He made it clear he was surprised I woke up that day," she said. "I wasn't going to leave. I complied. I didn't want to be hurt anymore."

A while later, Levar and the other woman went upstairs.

"I got scared," she told Gareau. "I heard him talking about shooting me in the foot with his spear gun."

The complainant said she grabbed her bag, ran out of the house to a bar on the next street because she was scared someone was following her.

She stayed there for about 10 minutes, and then "I remember walking.... all of a sudden I was at the police station."

After she provided a statement to police, she was taken to the hospital, and sexual assault centre.

Gareau also heard about another incident she said occurred about two weeks earlier in September 2017.

The woman said she was at Levar's house purchasing drugs, when he started talking about missing some money and accusing her of taking it.

He taped her hands, knees and ankles together "to try to get me to confess to stealing his money."

Levar "grabbed my ankles and dragged me to the stove (where an element was on), he picked me up so I was upside down" and held her over the stove.

She said he threatened to burn her feet, but dropped her when she insisted that she didn't have his money.

Defence lawyer Ken Walker will cross-examine the complainant Thursday.

Meanwhile, the court will hear testimony from a forensics expert and a city police officer on Wednesday.

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