A sobbing young woman captivated a Brooklyn jury Monday as she recounted her daring escape from a bouncer who was later charged in the murder of grad student Imette St. Guillen.
Glancing furtively at the defense table, Shanai Woodard took the stand and fingered Darryl Littlejohn as the man who plucked her off the street and threw her into his van in October 2005.
"I said, 'What did I do? Can I call my sister?'" Woodard said, her voice trembling. "That's when he took my phone and said I can't call anyone."
She wept as she recalled Littlejohn's viciousness and the thought that she might have shared the same fate as St. Guillen, whose naked body was found dumped off the Belt Parkway four months later.
Woodard said she tried to escape by opening the door and screaming for help, but Littlejohn stopped the van and climbed into the back with her.
"He punched me in the head two to three times and he put a jacket over my head so I couldn't see," said the petite 23-year-old, glancing at an expressionless Littlejohn. "He said I was trying to be slick and trying to get away and he wouldn't let me get away."
"I said, 'Why are you doing this? What did I do? I didn't do anything.'"
St. Guillen was last seen at the SoHo bar where Littlejohn worked. The ex-con's DNA, as well as that of his brother and mother, were found near St. Guillen's body.
Littlejohn was convicted last year of abducting Woodard and has since been sentenced to 25 years to life.
St. Guillen's best friend, step-father and several others in the audience looked at Littlejohn as Woodard broke down in tears. Jurors sat up straight and listened as if spellbound.
"I managed to get the jacket off my head so I could see," she said.
She said she then decided to fling herself from the moving van. "I got the door open and pushed myself out."
"I tumbled on the ground really hard ... I landed in like a dirt patch. It happened really fast."
Littlejohn slowed the van, but apparently the sight of children playing nearby convinced him to drive off and leave the bloodied victim who might have been.
He was convicted of the Queens abduction in October and is serving 25 years to life in prison.
Normally, testimony of another crime would not be allowed. However, Justice Abraham Gerges ruled over Littlejohn's lawyers objections that similarities - a young woman abducted, hands bound behind, hit in the head and her eyes covered - were striking enough to let the jurors hear.
In fact, it was St. Guillen's case that led to the arrest of Littlejohn for the Queens abduction.
Woodard recounted that she was watching the news in February 2006 when she saw the van from the as-yet-unsolved murder of St. Guillen.
"I just started freaking out. I started crying, 'Mom, that's the van I was in," she said.