A 21-year-old man has been charged with abducting his ex-girlfriend and forcing her at knifepoint into a Layton apartment where he allegedly beat, smothered and choked her repeatedly into unconsciousness.
Layton police Lt. Travis Lyman said the 23-year-old woman's ordeal began late the night of Aug. 4, as the victim was moving belongings out of her Layton Meadows Apartments unit and into her car.
Suddenly, the knife-wielding suspect, Benjamin Luke Burnside, allegedly appeared and made her go back inside the apartment. There, Lyman says, she was held for the next 20 hours and assaulted multiple times. Burnside also took the victim's cellphone to prevent her from calling for help, police say.
During the assaults, according to charges filed on Monday in 2nd District Court, Burnside at various times told the unidentified woman while either choking or holding a pillow over her face, "I'm going to kill you" and "I have the power to kill you. I can kill you if I want."
Late the evening of Aug. 5, the woman convinced him to go with her to get food. With her behind the wheel, Burnside allegedly forced her to drive throughout Layton before ordering her to pull into a library parking lot.
Seeing her chance, the woman bolted from the car, and Burnside panicked and ran from the scene. The victim then went to Layton Police Department to report the incident.
A manhunt over the next few days ended last Saturday night with Burnside's arrest at his Layton home. He was booked into the Davis County jail on first-degree felony counts of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated burglary, as well as felony and misdemeanor drug possession charges.
Burnside, who was being held on $22,000 bail, is to be arraigned Aug. 17 before Judge Michael Allphin.
remims@sltrib.com
Twitter: @remims
