A Stone County man is behind bars and charged with sexual battery, aggravated assault and grand larceny auto in a Saturday incident in which he allegedly assaulted a 19-year-old woman in McComb and ran over her with her own vehicle.
McComb police investigator Shannon Sullivan said Gulfport Police officers arrested Wiggins resident Mercie Anthony Expose, 28, Tuesday night in Gulfport. Expose was being held on $600,000 bond at the Stone County Regional Correctional Facility, awaiting transfer to Pike County.
A Gulfport police spokesman said officers received a tip about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday that Expose was at a house on South Carolina Avenue in Gulfport.
Expose reportedly tried to flee when officers went to the house, but he was caught after a brief foot chase.
A spokesman for the Stone County Sheriff’s Department said Expose had been free on bond on a rape charge from Stone County at the time he allegedly assaulted the woman in McComb.
McComb police received a call about 11:39 a.m. Saturday that passersby had found a woman on Old Liberty Road about 20 to 30 feet from the road in a field near an abandoned house.
The woman was taken to Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center with multiple injuries and was later transferred to St. Dominic’s Hospital in Jackson.
According to police reports, Expose had met the woman earlier and sometime after 1:30 a.m. Saturday asked her for a ride to a friend’s house near Presley Boulevard.
As they were driving, the woman had trouble with her 1997 Ford Ranger pickup and pulled over on Old Liberty Road to check the problem.
When she got out, Expose allegedly approached her from behind, overpowered and assaulted her, and ran over her with the truck before fleeing in the truck. The truck has not been recovered, Sullivan said.
