Victim: 'You'll have to kill me first'

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) -- An 80-year-old woman who was beaten so severely her teeth were knocked out took the stand Tuesday in the opening day of testimony against her alleged assailant.

Betty Oosterhouse was beaten at her home Sept. 7, 2009 by a man she recognized as having done roof work on her home earlier in the year. He had come to her door claiming car troubles and asked to use her phone.

That man, Randall Lachniet, was arrested and charged with torture, home invasion, armed robbery, fleeing and eluding police and cutting the phone lines to Oosterhouse's home.

The 46-year-old allegedly forced his way into her home on Farnham near Division. Once he was in, he grabbed a paring knife and demanded her ATM numbers.

"Of course, I was in total shock," Oosterhouse said. "And I believe I said, 'you're going to have to kill me first.' "

Lachniet allegedly attacked Oosterhouse -- breaking her jaw, knocking out several teeth and giving her a concussion.

But Oosterhouse fought back, and at one point bit Lachniet's hand. She testified against him Tuesday.

"He hit me here, I bit him, and then ... while I was biting him, he wasn't hitting me but after he got loose, he hit me in the head," she said.

After savagely beating the 80-year-old, Lachniet allegedly tied her up.

"He rolled me over on my stomach and then he cut the cords off the Venetian blinds and tied my hands behind my back," Oosterhouse said.

She was able to wiggle out of the binds on her feet, then somehow, got upstairs from the basement and outside, where a neighbor heard her cries for help.

"I worked on untying her," neighbor Richard Lacava said. "She was tied with a bunch of tiny string and wire with the lamp hanging behind her."

Throughout the alleged attack, Oosterhouse said she concentrated on one thing.

"I was just trying to get the knife away from my throat," she testified. "I was just trying to get his hands off my throat, which, they were there part of the time. And I was just trying to survive. I wasn't paying attention to anything but getting free and getting rid of the knife."

But the physical effects still linger.

"And also, since the blows to the cheek also damaged the nerves in my cheek, now I drool," Oosterhouse said. "I didn't do that before."

24 Hour News 8 will continue to follow this trial, which is expected to continue Wednesday.