By Alex Roth
STAFF WRITER
March 23, 2000
VISTA -- A Vista woman who began an Internet romance with an Oregon stranger
testified yesterday about a visit from hell that began when he flew south for
their first meeting and ended when he attacked her with a claw hammer.
After beating her so savagely that her studio apartment was covered with blood, Thomas Abney stole her purse and car and left for the airport, Elizabeth Wadsworth testified before a Superior Court jury.
Abney, 31, who claimed to be a law student but was really an unemployed former Navy enlistee who lived with his mother, is on trial on charges that include premeditated attempted murder, which carries a life sentence.
Abney and Wadsworth, 44, met over the Internet in April and began an online romance that included pet sign-on names, she testified. Hers was "Asonebadgirl," and his was "Anythinggoes."
Wadsworth, who works for a company that makes orthodontic products, said the relationship evolved to the point that they began speaking by telephone and sending each other photos.
Abney told Wadsworth that he was a 22-year-old law student from Newberg, Ore. He asked her not to tell anyone about their relationship, saying "it should be our little secret," she testified.
Eventually the two made plans to meet, and Abney agreed to fly to San Diego. He was supposed to arrive April 30 but did not showed up, she testified.
Six days later, he called her out of the blue, announced that he was at the Portland airport with plane reservations and asked her to pick him up in San Diego later that night, she testified.
She described a feeling of giddy excitement as she met him for the first time that night. But then he announced that he would be staying for nearly three weeks, which she found "surprising."
The two spent the weekend together and had sex twice, she testified. She eventually told him that he would have to leave by May 12 -- six days early -- because she had too much work to do.
By that time, she testified, "he just didn't seem like the type of person I would fall in love with."
At 5 a.m. May 12, as Wadsworth waited for a shuttle to arrive and take Abney to the airport, he suddenly attacked her, choking her so hard she passed out at least twice, she testified.
She awoke dizzy and confused, her clothes and bed covered with blood. Abney was gone, and so were her purse and car, she testified.
Police arrested Abney at Lindbergh Field as he sat in an Alaska Airlines plane scheduled to fly to Portland.
Prosecutor Christine Trevino said Wadsworth suffered claw-hammer wounds to the head and steak-knife stab wounds to her neck.
Wadsworth testified that she was hospitalized for two days and then forced to check out against doctor's orders because her insurance company would not cover the expenses.
Trevino told jurors that Abney attacked her because he needed cash and did not have enough money to return home. The attack was a failed attempt to kill her, the prosecutor said.
Abney's trial had been scheduled for December but was postponed after his
lawyer said Abney was mentally incompetent to stand trial. Abney was later
examined by a court-appointed mental health expert, who pronounced him mentally
competent.