Jul 17, 2018 2 min read

A Smithton man is accused of hiding in the backseat of his ex-girlfriend’s vehicle before she left work Sunday and then kidnapping and assaulting her at a traffic signal in Rostraver Township.

District Judge Charles Christner sent the suspect, JR Lee Keener, 36, to Westmoreland County jail on $500,000 bond on a string of charges stemming from the alleged 9 p.m. kidnapping at Route 51 and Finley Road, court records show.

Danette Nightman told police she was planning to drive home from her job at a motel on Finley Road before she was surprised by Keener at a red light.

Keener “popped up and began striking Nightman in the back of the head and face several times before jumping into the front seat of her vehicle,” police stated in the affidavit.

He also is accused of kicking and damaging her vehicle’s windshield and ripping off its rearview mirror. Police also accuse him of demanding she drive him anywhere he wanted to go.

Nightman said she was frightened and believed she would be seriously harmed by Keener after he threatened to “cut her up into pieces and put her in the river,” the record alleges.

She also accused him of threatening to burn down her house and kill her family.

Nightman said she drove Keener to Elizabeth, McKeesport and Glassport, and that he struck her several more times.

She managed to escape after he told her to drive him to Frick Hospital in Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland County, to get a prescription for pain pills, police said.

She said Keener told her to walk him into the hospital and return to her car to park it. Instead, she said, she drove to her parents’ house and called 911.

Police charged Keener Monday with kidnapping, unlawful restraint, simple assault, making terroristic threats, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief.

He is scheduled to appear before Christner for a preliminary hearing at 11 a.m. Aug. 6.