A Virginia couple was recognized this week for stopping a dangerous crime spree four years ago.
In the middle of the night June 9, 2012, the doorbell rang at the Stafford County home of newlyweds Kristi and Jimmy Newman. When Jimmy Newman checked on it, three teenagers armed with a club and knives broke in through the garage.
From upstairs, Kristi Newman heard a scuffle and her husband’s cries for her to run, but she didn’t have a chance.
The intruders ransacked the bedroom and beat the couple.
“They kept saying, ‘If you don't do what we want, we will kill her,’” Kristi Newman said. “Every time my husband spoke, he was beaten. He was beaten unmercifully.”
Later, when the attackers took the couple to the kitchen, Jimmy Newman made his move. When two suspects briefly left The room, the third implied they might burn the couple next.
“At that point, he's like, ‘We're getting out.’ So he held out his hand to me and said, ‘Let's go,’ and I grabbed his hand and he ran to knife rack in the kitchen and grabbed a knife,” Kristi Newman said.
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The intruders tried to get her husband, but he stabbed two of them and the Newmans escaped.
The three teenagers were arrested, and two were tied to other home invasions. Investigators were convinced their crime spree could have led to murder.
The Newmans have since left Stafford County, but Kristi Newman returned to accept the second annual Molly Gill Survivor's Award -- an honor shared by her husband. After crying every day for weeks after the attack, constant prayer helped the couple turn the corner, she said.
“I refuse to let this ruin me or zap my joy for the rest of my life,” she said. “I want to think I’m one and done. We did our part to get these guys arrested and now in prison for probably the length of their lives.”
Another takeaway from the Newmans, they didn't know their neighbors at the time, and when they ran from their home that night, they had to ring a lot of doorbells to get help.
