A Gary man is accused of kidnapping a father and his 16-year-old daughter from Michael Jackson’s childhood home, then sexually assaulting the teen near an abandoned home, court documents show.
Oasia Barnes, 69, was charged Saturday with several felonies, including Level 1 felony rape.
If convicted, he faces at maximum up to nearly 300 years in prison. He appeared in court Monday where a public defender was appointed.
He is being held without bond until Aug. 27, when the bond will be reset to a $220,000 or $22,000 cash surety. His next court date is Aug. 21 before Lake Superior Judge Samuel Cappas.
The victim’s father told Gary Police Detective Olivia Vasquez he was snapping pictures at the tourist attraction in the city’s Midtown section, when Barnes walked up and stuck a handgun toward his daughter’s ribs demanding money.
The man gave him about $300.
When Barnes told him he needed a ride, the father said he could take their vehicle. Barnes said he wanted to have sex with the “pretty” girl, according to the affidavit. He threatened to kill her if they didn’t get in the car.
The man felt he had no choice.
In the car, Barnes repeatedly threatened to shoot them both. He directed the man to an alley behind an abandoned home. At first, he said he wanted to watch the girl “do sex things” to her father, and threatened to kill the man if she didn’t. The father told him she didn’t want to do it.
Barnes got out of the car with the girl.
The father said he thought about running over Barnes, but didn’t want to hit the girl. The man ran to Maryland Street and called 911.
Police later found the girl sitting with Barnes on a basement stairwell on the 2200 block of Washington Street. Barnes was arrested with a black Taurus handgun. The teen said he kidnapped her.
The girl told investigators that Barnes forced her to touch his genitals at gunpoint as they got into her father’s vehicle. When Barnes got her out of the vehicle, he forced her at gunpoint to perform a sex act.
As the father got out of the car, Barnes flashed the gun and told him to get back in the car.
Barnes walked the girl past weeds and some abandoned houses. He told the girl to say she was his girlfriend and that she “loved” him. When she was unconvincing, he threatened to shoot off her toes “one-by-one,” until he believed her, the affidavit states.
After the assault, they walked around the neighborhood to “lay low” and he told people walking by she was his girlfriend.
Barnes has no major criminal history in Indiana, according to court filings.
He is charged with Level 1 felony rape, two counts of Level 2 felony kidnapping while hijacking a vehicle, two counts of Level 2 felony criminal confinement, one count of Level 3 felony rape, one count of Level 3 felony armed robbery, two counts of Level 3 felony kidnapping while armed with a deadly weapon, two counts of Level 3 felony criminal confinement while armed with a deadly weapon, one count of Level 4 felony sexual battery, two counts of Level 5 felony intimidation, two counts of Level 6 felony pointing a firearm, and one count of Level 6 felony sexual battery.
