- April 18, 2024
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A passerby called 911 at about 9:30 a.m. Monday, Nov. 27, after seeing a young woman — naked, bloodied and bruised — staggering out of the woods along old Kings Road near Pecos Drive.
Several drivers stopped and gave the young woman water and a towel and sweatshirt to cover herself with.
She told rescuers that a man had picked her up in Daytona Beach, sexually assaulted her, threatened her with a gun, dragged her into the woods in Flagler County and strangled her with his hands and with a belt until she passed out.
Then he left her for dead, according to Sheriff's Office reports.
The man since arrested by Flagler County and Volusia County Sheriff's Office deputies in connection with the crime is 34-year-old Obtravies Andre Watkins, a transient and registered sex offender with a criminal history that includes 21 felonies — including molesting a child — and 10 misdemeanors.
He is charged with kidnapping and sexual battery — the legal term for the offense commonly known as rape — in both counties, and Flagler County has also charged him with attempted second-degree murder.
The victim told deputies that she'd been walking near Fremont Avenue and South Ridgewood Avenue at about midnight the previous night when the man later identified as Watkins pulled up in a beat-up red four-door car and offered her money for sex.
She agreed and got into the car. Watkins drove to a post office location on Williamson Boulevard in Ormond Beach and injected himself with "molly," the drug also known as MDMA or ecstasy.
Then he drove to James Ormond Park, where the two had sex as had been agreed. But when the act ended and the woman told Watkins that the "date" was over, he punched her in the face and raped her, and told her that he had a gun under the seat and wasn't afraid to use it on her.
"On multiple occasions, she tried to exit the vehicle and was threatened with death for her attempts," a deputy wrote in an arrest report.
Watkins then drove onto Old Dixie Road and raped her again.
The woman described the area as near a body of water, with houses in the distance. She could see their Christmas lights.
He forced her into the car again and drove her onto Old Kings Road, then dragged her from the car and into the woods. He wrapped a belt around her neck and tightened it until she lost consciousness.
She woke up and saw him piling her belongings into his car. He saw her, stomped his foot on her head and yanked the belt even tighter. She lost consciousness again.
The woman "said she kept attempting to play dead while with the male because she was so afraid he was going to kill her," according to a deputy's report.
Watkins had been "making comments that he was driving her around different areas to try and be stopped by law enforcement so he did not have to kill her," according to the deputy's report.
She regained consciousness and walked out of the woods, then flagged down passing drivers, who gave her a towel and sweatshirt to cover herself with.
She had "significant injuries" and was treated on scene by paramedics and then taken to a facility.
A sexual assault examination nurse photographed the woman's injuries. The woman described the man who'd raped her and also described his car.
Deputies determined that Watkins, a registered sex offender, matched the description the woman gave, lived in the area where the woman was picked up and owned a car that matched the description of the one her attacker had been driving.
The woman picked Watkins out of a photographic lineup.
Deputies took Watkins into custody, took his vehicle as evidence and questioned him with his lawyer present. He admitted to picking the woman up, injecting MDMA and having sex with her. He said he'd placed the belt around her neck at her own request, and that he'd left her naked in the woods because she was complaining about getting more money.
Deputies showed him photographs of her injuries. He denied raping her and said the entire encounter was consensual.
Watkins had previously been convicted in Flagler County in 2003 of sexual molestation of a child, in 2005 for failing to register as a sexual offender and in 2010 for soliciting a child for sex and traveling to meet a child for sex.
