— Though the defendant denied it, a 23-year-old woman testified Wednesday that kidnapping suspect Chuck Little surprised her in her home last year and held a knife on her, threatening to kill her.

Michelle Bainbridge took the stand Wednesday morning, the second day of testimony during the aggravated kidnapping and assault trial of 43-year-old Little.

Bainbridge told jurors that Little told her he was going to kill her after she refused to move back in with him, going so far as to put a towel over her head and raise a kitchen knife over his head.

Bainbridge did not make eye contact with Little throughout most of her testimony and cried during the beginning of Little’s cross examination.

Little has elected to represent himself during the trial, though he occasionally sought counsel from court-appointed standby attorney Matthew McConahay during testimony Tuesday and Wednesday.

During a video published to jurors Wednesday afternoon, Little told an investigator shortly after his arrest that Bainbridge pulled out a knife during a scuffle and that he did not threaten to kill her.



Bainbridge’s account

Bainbridge testified she had moved back home to Texas in February after about a year long relationship with Little. Though she initially contacted Little when his relative called her, she made it clear on March 5 that she did not want any further communication with him, she said.

He continued texting her, however, and they had a brief interaction on March 17 on Myspace but she never invited him to her aunt and uncle’s home or contacted him again.

As she plugged in the toaster to make waffles after dropping off her daughter at day care on March 31, Bainbridge said she saw Little come out of her daughter’s bedroom and she began screaming.

Little told her to shut up or he was going to kill her, Bainbridge testified.

He then pushed her and she fell against the dishwasher, according Bainbridge.

He then told her to go into the living room, where she sat down, still screaming, Bainbridge testified. She stopped screaming when she saw him pull a kitchen knife out of the top drawer in the kitchen, according to Bainbridge.

While standing in front of her, Little began hitting the blade in the palm of his other hand, Bainbridge said.

“He said he was there to pay me back for all the hurt I’d caused him,” Bainbridge said, adding she continued screaming and he told her to shut up.

At one point during their conversation, “he said he was there to collect money I owed him for the car I wrecked,” Bainbridge said.

After an unsuccessful attempt to take the knife away from Little, Bainbridge said she pressed the emergency button on the house phone to call for help but he grabbed it from her and threw it across the room, causing the battery to fall out and the back of the phone to come off.

She then used her cell phone to attempt to call for help but he threw that across the room leaving a hole in the wall, Bainbridge testified.

“He said that I was coming with him to Oklahoma or Mexico,” Bainbridge said.

Bainbridge said she grabbed the keys to her aunt’s vehicle and convinced him to leave the house by telling him she needed to cash a check at the bank so they would have money.

When she hit the bottom step, she began running and screaming for help, Bainbridge testified.

However, he grabbed her by the hair, put his hand over her mouth and pulled her back inside, Bainbridge said.

At the house, she tripped, hitting her elbow on the dog crate and Little jerked the keys from her hand, striking her lip in the process and busting it, according to Bainbridge’s testimony.

Bainbridge said he told her to go sit down and dragged her by her arm to the living room couch and pulled the knife out of his pocket.

“He said I had five minutes to decide if I was leaving with him or he was going to kill me,” Bainbridge said. “I started trying to plead with him.”

He threatened to kill her and commit suicide so he wouldn’t go to jail, Bainbridge said.

At one point, Little appeared to be writing a note and told her he was going to explain what happened, according to Bainbridge’s testimony.

He then covered her face with a towel as she was lying on the couch because he was going to stab her and he didn’t want her to see him do it, Bainbridge said.

Bainbridge said she jumped into a sitting position and saw the knife that had been raised go down by his leg when he didn’t stab her.

“He said that I had broke his heart that I’d left him and that I was going to pay,” Bainbridge said.

When the responding deputy knocked on the door, Little said he was sorry, asked her not to tell them what was going on and said he would leave her alone, Bainbridge said.



Little’s account

Little, who fled the scene through a window, was arrested the same day after a several hour manhunt.

Shortly after his arrest, Little talked with Investigator Robert Pawley for about two hours in an interview, most of which was played for the jury Wednesday.

Several short sections of the interview audio were not published to the jury, which Little made repeated objections to, saying the jury needed to hear everything.

Little’s account of the relationship between the two and incident differed dramatically from Bainbridge’s account.

“It wasn’t nothing but a little old domestic dispute,” Little told the investigator.

According to Little, he initially broke off the relationship with Bainbridge but she kept trying to get back with him, using his relationship with her young daughter.

Little said he traveled from his home in Oklahoma after Bainbridge called him from an unknown phone number about a week prior and offered to let him see her daughter, who he had gotten close to, though he said she might not have been aware what day he was coming.

His primary purpose was to pick up a check from a business in the Metroplex but he also stopped by the house to see the child before her mother took her to day care and to talk with her about money she owed him for wrecking his vehicle, Little said.

Little said he arrived in the neighborhood around 4:30 a.m. but drove around until after Bainbridge’s uncle, who did not want Little on his property, left for work.

He had been instructed not to park in the driveway so he parked down the street and  knocked on the door around 5:30 or 6 a.m., Little told the investigator, and Bainbridge let him in.

She then transported the child to day care around 7:30 a.m. while he waited at the house, Little said in the video.

After she returned, she checked the texts on his phone and became upset after seeing texts from other women, according to Little’s account.

She threw his cell phone towards him and then he grabbed hers and threw it, Little said. Later during the interview, Little said she pressed the emergency button on the cell phone and he took it from her, asking her why she was calling 911.   

He later took the home phone away from her when she attempted to call 911, Little told the investigator.

At some point, Little said Bainbridge pulled out a kitchen knife.

“She really wasn’t trying to stab me,” Little said.

Little said he received a minor cut on his hand while removing the knife Bainbridge held.

He claimed Bainbridge ran out of the house yelling and screaming as if she was being murdered and he went out and they tussled as he tried to bring her inside.

“I let her go to the driveway,” Little said.

Pressed by the investigator about Bainbridge’s account that she escaped the house, Little said, “If I’m doing something illegal, she’s not going to catch me off guard.”

Little said Bainbridge told him not to answer the door when the deputy knocked.

Little later said Bainbridge told she was going to send him to jail but he insisted on answering the door.

“I did not at any point put a knife to her,” Little said. “I did not at any point threaten to kill her.”

Testimony was expected to resume Thursday morning.