Pair charged with torturing man, holding him captive for 10 hours in Penn Hills home
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Authorities arrested a woman Tuesday on charges that she and a partner held a man captive for 10 hours in a Penn Hills home, stripped him naked and tortured him.
Yolanda Scott, 32, of Pittsburgh’s Larimer neighborhood was taken to the Allegheny County Jail after sheriff’s deputies found her in a house on Dreary Street.
Penn Hills police asked the Sheriff’s Office for help tracking down Scott after they filed charges earlier this month.
Court records show that the man charged as Scott’s accomplice, Windal L. Cox, 40, of Penn Hills, had been arrested Dec. 28 in connection with the incident.
Police said the pair took the alleged victim from floor to floor in Cox’s Mt. Carmel Road home as they abused him Dec. 20.
The assault began around 9 a.m., according to a criminal complaint. Court records say the victim was beaten with an empty liquor bottle, had disinfectant chemicals sprayed into his eyes, and had lit cigarettes put out in his eyes, ears and mouth.
The man told police he has known Cox, who is accused of most of the violence, since he was 12. The victim had been staying at the house for five days before the assault, the complaint said.
He told police that Scott hit him in the face with a magazine inside a sock.
All the other violence was attributed in the complaint to Cox.
At one point, the man said he begged Cox to kill him. He told police he escaped by jumping from a second-floor bathroom window.
Police found the man around 7 p.m. — naked and bleeding, his head swollen — as he knocked on Thon Drive doors and windows looking for help.
The man, who police did not identify, was taken to UPMC Mercy hospital. Police said he had a broken nose and broken eye socket.
He also had burns and cigarette ashes in his ear canal and mild burns to his esophagus.
His right pinky finger had been cut down to the bone by a circular saw, according to the complaint.
While the court paperwork doesn’t lay out any motive for the alleged torture, the man told police that he overheard conversations by his assailants about stolen narcotics.
Cox told the victim that if he wanted to live, he should keep quiet, according to the complaint.
Police got a search warrant and entered the home that night. They found large amounts of dried blood, blood-soaked socks and bloody cigarette butts in the basement, the complaint said.
In the kitchen lay a bloody Pittsburgh Penguins jersey. Nearby was the man’s identification and debit card.
The upstairs shower, where police said the victim was forced to bathe before escaping, was flecked with blood.
Police said they did not identify Scott until Jan. 29. Penn Hills police charged her Feb. 6 in connection with the assault.
The department did not return phone calls or emails Tuesday seeking comment.
Scott is charged with two counts of aggravated assault and one count each of criminal conspiracy, unlawful restraint, possession of instruments of crime, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, false imprisonment and harassment.
Cox was charged with 16 crimes, including aggravated assault, possession of instruments of crime, simple assault, making terroristic threats and false imprisonment, among others.
Prosecutors withdrew two aggravated assault counts against Cox during a Jan. 29 preliminary hearing, and a robbery county was dismissed, according to court records.
A lawyer for Cox did not respond to multiple phone calls Tuesday afternoon.
No attorney for Scott was listed in court records.