72-year-old attempted rape victim details terrifying night inside home

By Brendan Tierney

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    NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WSMV) — A woman was woken up by a man that broke into her home and attempted to rape her early Wednesday morning, according to Metro Police.

Officers said Jimmy Avery, 61, got into the 72-year-old woman’s home by pulling out a window air conditioning unit.

Jacqueline said she was in bed around 4 a.m. watching television when Avery appeared in her room.

“I asked him why he was here,” Jacqueline said. “Then he said, ‘You know why I am here.’ He came over and bent over and pressed me down on the bed.”

Avery’s voice made Jacqueline think he was going to kill her, she said. Jacqueline was able to fight off the sexual assault and got Avery to leave the home, for the time being.

“He came back around six and then he was violent,” Jacqueline said. “He tried to penetrate me. I kept my legs closed so he couldn’t. Then I hit him, and he hit me back.”

“I did just about anything I could to get him off me,” Jacqueline said about stabbing Avery with a pair of scissors.

After getting Avery to leave again, Jacqueline called her medical alert company, which then called Metro Police, according to the arrest report. Officers found Avery Wednesday night trying to break into cars at a nearby apartment complex.

Neighbor Daryl Owens said this is normally a quiet area of North Nashville. He was shocked to hear what happened right down the street from where he has lived for 18 years.

“You are supposed to be able to rest in your own home safely without something traumatic like that happening,” Owens said. “That is something you always see in the news somewhere else. Not right in your vicinity where you live at, lay your head at. It’s really, really unsettling for us.”

He is double checking to make sure his window air conditioning unit is secured and is going to check on his many elderly neighbors to ensure no one else can get into their homes.

Officers helped Jacqueline board up where her unit was removed from, she said, making her more comfortable knowing Avery will not return.

“Since I know that he has been apprehended, I can come out,” Jacqueline said. “I was afraid to come out of the house until I knew that they captured him because he swore that he would come back.”

Avery faces two counts of attempted forceable rape, two counts of aggravated burglary, and two counts of drug possession. He remains in jail on a $302,000 bond.

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