A 22-year-old man, while on probation for a previous domestic abuse conviction, savagely raped and beat his girlfriend at her Minneapolis home, then blamed the victim's injuries on her mother, police said.
Edward K. Dembry, of Minneapolis, was charged Thursday with third-degree criminal sexual conduct and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, both felonies.
Dembry was arrested in Richfield while violating a no-contact court order against another woman, police said.
According to the criminal complaint:
Minneapolis police responded to North Memorial Medical Center on Wednesday to investigate a sexual and physical assault. Officers recognized the victim from a few hours prior, when they responded to a trespass call at her mother's apartment where she lives with Dembry.
At the hospital, the victim told police that Dembry became enraged the previous night with some content he found on her cellphone while she was in the shower. Dembry accused the victim of being unfaithful and wrapped a sock around his fist before punching the victim in the face.
Dembry then grabbed a hammer and threatened the victim with it before beating her with a mop handle until it broke. The victim was forced to clean up her own blood.
After smashing the victim's cellphone, Dembry grabbed a razor blade and held it to her throat, taunting her about how she wanted to die. After lighting a flame with an aerosol can, Dembry threatened that he'd never lit anyone's hair on fire before.
