Feb. 25--There was no sense of danger when the orange Ford Pinto pulled up to Enietra Washington as she walked to a friend's house decades ago.
The short man in the driver's seat hopped out of the car to chat her up, asking over and over to give her a ride, Washington remembered.
She demurred at first but felt sorry for the man and eventually accepted the offer. He seemed nice enough.
It would be the start of an ordeal that would scar her life and eventually lead her to a downtown Los Angeles courtroom to tell a rapt jury the horrors still to come that day 27 years ago.
Washington is believed to be the lone survivor to escape a serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper.
On Thursday, she sat on the witness stand facing Lonnie Franklin Jr., the man prosecutors say attacked her and is responsible for 10 slayings in South Los Angeles spanning more than 20 years.
Franklin faces 10 counts of murder in the deaths of nine women and a 15-year-old girl and one count of attempted murder. The 63-year-old has pleaded not guilty.
In an opening statement last week, Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman said Washington's testimony would provide a blueprint of what happened to those women who have no voice.
Franklin, who had sat still throughout the trial, turned and watched as Washington walked to the stand.
Despite the passage of years, Washington's account was vivid.
After a stop at a nearby house, the ride resumed and the man said something she wasn't able to hear clearly, so, she testified, she turned toward him.
Then, she said, everything went quiet. She noticed blood flowing from her chest.
She fought to escape and only then did her attacker tell her he had shot her. She was stunned and begged the man to take her to a hospital, but he refused, she said.
Grim Sleeper victims: Who they were>>
She began to go in and out of consciousness and awoke to the man forcing himself on her, first on top of her and later with his face between her legs, she said.
Washington told the courtroom that she tried to defend herself but kept passing out. She would awake to the flash of a camera and realized he was taking photographs of her.
She tried once again to escape, and this time the man pushed her out of the car and drove off.
Silverman previously said that photographs of Washington were found after a search of Franklin's home.
Washington's testimony was scheduled to continue Thursday afternoon.
For more Los Angeles court news, follow @sjceasar
