She had connected with him on an Internet dating site and met him in Surrey twice to have sex, but a teen testifying in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday said one of their meet-ups turned violent and Andrew Aurie Jefferson sexually assaulted and choked her.
Jefferson's trial by jury began April 14 in New Westminster. He is charged with sexual assault and attempting to choke to overcome resistance. The alleged victim's identity is shielded by a publication ban.
The woman, who was 17 at the time of the alleged incident and is now 19, said she met Jefferson on the Plenty of Fish website in December 2012. She said he told her she was cute and the two exchanged phone numbers and began texting one another.
She took transit from North Vancouver to Surrey the next day, where Jefferson met her at the Newton bus exchange. The pair walked to his basement suite and talked for a bit before having sex. They then watched a movie, fell asleep and she went home in the morning.
The next night, the teen testified, she was drinking vodka at a friend's and texted Jefferson, making another plan to get together with him. Admitting she was "a little tipsy," she said she took transit to Surrey at about 1 a.m. and walked to his house alone. He couldn't meet her this time because of a court-ordered curfew, she said.
Once there, they pooled their money and she waited outside for what she assumed was a delivery of marijuana. She took the package inside, she said. It wasn't pot, she testified, but "white stuff," which Jefferson proceeded to smoke.
The woman told Justice Paul Pearlman and the 12-member jury that Jefferson (left) told her the drug made him horny and he pushed her on the bed and began to have consensual intercourse with her. But she testified the situation quickly turned when she refused his attempts at anal sex.
"I said no. And then he started choking me.
"I was screaming," she cried. "I was trying to get him off of me but I couldn't."
She said she fell unconscious and when she woke up he was still choking her and her hair extensions were on the floor.
"He got really apologetic after," the teen told the jury.
She realized she couldn't leave because it was the middle of the night and no buses were running, so stayed at Jefferson's place.
The two had sex about a half hour later – something she said she didn't want to do but did because she was scared. She left in the morning.
The woman testified she didn't go to police right away because a friend told her not to, and because she didn't know Jefferson's last name at the time.
"I knew it was wrong," she said. "I wanted to say something but I didn't have all the details."
In February 2013, however, after speaking to one of Jefferson's ex-girlfriends, she did give a statement to police and Jefferson was charged a few months later.
Jefferson, 28, wearing his red prison-issue top and pants, his hair cropped close to his head, listened intently during the teens testimony from the prisoner's box, often glancing at the jury and court gallery.
He's expected to take the stand Tuesday, in a trial his lawyer Eric Warren called "he said, she said" case.
The trial continues.