A 20-year-old West Virginia man has been arrested and charged after allegedly kidnapping a teenager he impregnated and holding her for a year.
During that time, he kicked her in the stomach so hard that she miscarried, according to criminal complaints obtained by the Times West Virginian.
A Marion County Sheriff’s Department detective interviewed the teenager on March 28, a day after she was located after running away in early March 2018. The girl told the detective that she had been with Brian Merchant-Jones, 20, the entire time and that he impregnated her in the early months of the time period.
The juvenile said that near the end of October Merchant-Jones kept kicking her in the stomach and hours later she miscarried the unborn baby, delivering it in her residence in Fairmont. She took the stillborn fetus to another residence and buried it.
A 20-year-old Fairmont man is accused of abducting a teenager, holding her hostage for about a year, impregnating her and beating her so severely that she miscarriedhttps://t.co/rDlUywcLRU
— Eyewitness News (@wchs8fox11) April 4, 2019
FAIRMONT — A 20-year-old Fairmont man faces charges of murder in the 1st degree, kidnapping and two counts of malicious assault after he allegedly impregnated a runaway juvenile, who miscarried her fetus hours after he allegedly kicked her in the st… https://t.co/mSURGazbdn
— Times West Virginian (@TimesWV) April 3, 2019
Based on her description of the location detectives were able to find the remains.
The teen said that Merchant-Jones assaulted her nearly every day and wouldn’t let her speak to anyone without listening in on the conversation. She said she and Merchant-Jones moved several times and during the 28 days that Merchant-Jones was in prison during the past year, he had associates check in on her “to make sure did not leave,” according to the court papers.
She added that “she believed severe physical harm would befall her if she attempted to leave.”
An examination of the teen after she was found detected past injuries, including trauma to the head.
Court records obtained by the Times indicated that Merchant-Jones has a prior record, including an arrest in September 2018 for allegedly assaulting another man.
Just 11 hours before the girl was interviewed by police at the Child Advocacy Center, Merchant-Jones beat the alleged victim at a house in Mannington, taking her into a bathroom, choking her, dragging her around the house by her hair, and punching her in the stomach, according to The Dominion Post, which also obtained court papers.
The girl told detectives that Merchant-Jones “beat the [expletive] out of me.”
She said that Merchant-Jones also choked her until she lost consciousness on her birthday on Feb. 9.
Merchant-Jones was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping, and two counts of malicious assault. He was being held without bail due to the murder charge, which came from his allegedly killing the unborn baby.
“We received reports from a juvenile that Mr. Merchant was abusive and had held her against her will and had kicked her in the abdominal area while she was pregnant with child, causing a miscarriage,” Marion County Sheriff Jimmy Riffle told WV News. “We’re following up on all of that with medical records and things of that nature to determine exactly what occurred there.”
The sheriff’s office worked with the Fairmont Police Department and U.S. Marshals to track down Merchant at 1:30 a.m. on April 2, Riffle said, noting that the defendant and the alleged victim moved multiple times.
“The incidents occurred throughout Marion County over a period of time,” he said. “They moved from residence to residence during that time frame.”
