HOLLIDAYSBURG — An Altoona woman testified Tuesday that she believed a Philadelphia man was going to kill her on May 21 when he coerced her into driving through Altoona, Juniata and into Sinking Valley, before returning to Altoona where he forced her to pull over and raped her.

“He had a gun in his hand,” the woman said of 32-year-old Kemar Ricketts, a man wanted by police in connection with a March 26 shooting at Evergreen Manors and a March 29 seizure of drugs at the Econo Lodge.

“I feared that I wasn’t going to be let go,” the woman testified.

Magisterial District Judge Daniel DeAntonio, who convened Ricketts’ preliminary hearing on Tuesday at the Blair County Courthouse, forwarded all charges, including kidnapping, rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault and sexual extortion, to county court.

Ricketts, whose bail in his pending Blair County cases adds up to more than $1 million, has been in the county prison since his June 1 arrest when police stopped a vehicle he was driving and subsequently seized a large amount of drugs, including methamphetamine, valued at more than $80,000.

During Tuesday’s preliminary hearing, defense attorney Julia Burke asked the testifying woman for more information about the gun she said Ricketts had. The woman could only describe the gun as black.

“There was no evidence offered that what (Ricketts) had was an actual firearm,” Burke told DeAntonio in challenging the charges. “She didn’t see him operating it. She didn’t see him loading it.”

District Attorney Pete Weeks countered that the woman testified that Ricketts ordered her to take off her clothes, as she stood on a road in Sinking Valley, to determine if she was wearing a wire.

“He pointed a gun at her head,” Weeks said. “That’s how he employed it and the threats he made while employing it.”

The woman said Ricketts told her he cared for her and wanted her to flee with him to Philadelphia. She said she didn’t want to do that and told him they should return to Altoona so she could convince people that she was all right, despite her previous text message telling the recipient to call 911.

The woman said that when they got back into Altoona, Ricketts started “freaking out” because he was getting messages indicating that police were everywhere.

After Ricketts concluded that he was going to jail, she said he ordered her in the Pleasant Valley area to get into the vehicle’s back seat where her forced her to engage in sexual activity and raped her.

“Yes, he still had the firearm with him at this time,” the woman testified.

The woman said that she subsequently dropped Ricketts off at the 13th Street Dollar General store and assured him that they would meet later.

She said she instead contacted police and told them about what happened.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.