[04/12/01] COLUMBUS On the day of his arrest, Romika Perkins told police he didn’t intend to hurt the woman he is accused of raping or the man he is accused of assaulting with a baseball bat.

The 12-member jury listened and watched intently as an hour-long video was played during the third day of Perkins’ trial here. On it, he admits taking captives and forcing sexual relations, and insists only that none of it was planned in advance.

“It was a spur-of-the-moment thing,” Perkins said on the tape, recorded by Vicksburg police officers Randy Naylor and Bob Donohue on July 19, 1999.

Circuit Judge Frank Vollor, presiding after moving the trial from Warren County, ruled last week over the objection of Perkins’ attorney that the tape could be played. On it, Perkins also says he is speaking voluntarily of his own desire and doesn’t want an attorney. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.

Perkins and Derrick Warren, 19, were arrested one day after Lorie Stevens was raped while her children were locked in the closet of a home at 2090 Sky Farm Ave. Vicksburg businessman Glenn Triplett, who owned the home, arrived shortly after the Stevenses and was beaten unconscious with a baseball bat.

In other video evidence, prosecutors showed bank pictures of the defendant using Lorie Stevens’ ATM card and access code to retrieve cash.

Stevens, her oldest son, who was 14 at the time, and Triplett all testified Tuesday, recounting in vivid detail how they were held captive and assaulted.

On the tape, Perkins tells police that the house located on a 17-acre plot had already been broken into when he and Warren arrived there on the Sunday morning. “We were just going to sleep there for a couple of weeks until I could find an apartment.”

He said he and Warren were surprised when the Stevens family drove up to the home around 3 p.m. Sunday and they panicked further when Triplett showed up.

Perkins said they then put masks on their faces and went out to meet the Stevens family, “We had no intentions of robbing them we were just going to spook them.”

With details matching those in Lorie and Joseph Stevens’ testimony, Perkins described forcing Stevens and her children into a utility closet and then later returning, taking Lorie Stevens upstairs and raping her. “She kept saying take my money, it’s in my purse,” he told police.

In the statement, Perkins said he only kicked Triplett once and then Warren took the 67-year-old man into another room and beat him with an aluminum baseball bat. Triplett, who testified he eventually became unconscious, was hospitalized for five days with broken ribs and other injuries.

“I did have a gun but I wasn’t showing it most of the time,” Perkins said on the tape.

In his testimony, police Lt. Billy Brown said that about 30 minutes after he left the home, Perkins was captured on bank cameras withdrawing money from Stevens’ account.

Donohue, who collected evidence from the Sky Farm home and from Perkins car on the day of his arrest, testified Wednesday that an aluminum bat was recovered from Perkins’ car. He also collected the cords used to bind the victims.

Warren County Assistant District Attorney John Bullard, who is prosecuting the case along with District Attorney Gil Martin, said after two employees of the Mississippi State Crime Lab testify this morning he will rest his case.

Perkins’ attorney Chris Klotz said he plans to call Naylor and officer Jeff Merritt, who arrested Perkins.

The trial was moved out of Warren County after Vollor granted Klotz’s motion, citing publicity surrounding the case would make finding an impartial jury difficult. Warren’s trial is set for May 21 in Greenwood.

Stevens, who could have remained anonymous under state law shielding the identity of sexual assault victims, has since moved to Virginia.