Witness: Teen 'sorry' for Cary attack

As he lay face down in the mud Saturday night, a teen charged with raping a Cary woman and beating her husband said he thought he might have killed the man, a witness said today.

"We asked him if he had killed the man, and he said, 'Yeah, I might have. I'm sorry. I'm sorry,'" said Donnie Eugene Bass II, 31, of Clinton, who helped stop the assault.

The teen, Gavin John Clevesy, 17, of 311 Milky Way Drive, Apex, faces five felony charges, including first-degree rape and first-degree kidnapping, in the assault on the couple, who are in their 60s.

Bass and two other men interrupted the assault on the woman, then stood over Clevesy until police arrived.

Earlier that evening, Bass was in one of three vehicles that had just left a wedding reception at the MacGregor Downs country club. He said he and a couple of family members, Justin Dale Smith, 19, and Timothy Dale Smith, 45, both of Garland, noticed a car driven by another wedding guest had stopped in the road.

"We thought there had been a wreck," Bass said today. "I asked if there was a wreck, and they said they didn't know what was going on.

That's when Bass and the others heard a man's voice coming from a residence on Edinburgh Drive. The man was yelling, "He's got her in the woods! He's raping her," Bass said.

Bass and the Smiths went into the woods where they saw a man wearing plaid shorts, a black T shirt and white sneakers assaulting the woman.

"He was raping the woman and looking back at us. He was very loud and boisterous, telling us to get away," Bass said. "We got closer, and he got up and walked away."

The woman then went to the house and checked on her husband. Police said Clevesy had beaten the man before dragging his wife out of the house by her leg.

When Bass and the others approached the attacker, the man broke into a sprint and ran across the golf course before he tripped and fell face down in some mud.

"We stood over him until the cops got there," Bass said.

"He was pretty talkative and bleeding from the face," Bass said. "He asked if he could get up and said he was about to throw up."

Clevesy told them he was bleeding because the man had hit him in the head with an iron object, Bass said. The teen said he had beaten the man "pretty bad" and apologized for the attack, Bass said.

"He was drunk on something," Bass said.

Police said Clevesy had been drinking at a party before walking through the MacGregor Downs neighborhood, just before 9 p.m.

He knocked on the door of the couple's home and, when the man unlocked the deadbolt, kicked in the door, police think.

Clevesy made a first court appearance today in Wake District Court where Judge Shelley Desvousges refused to reduce his bond, set at $2.5 million. Desvousges told him he could face a life sentence in prison if convicted on the rape and sexual assault charges.

Clevesy's next court date was set for Oct. 20.

Clevesy attended Panther Creek High School as a freshman during the 2006-07 school year but withdrew in February 2007, according to Wake Schools spokesman Bill Poston.

Saturday's incident happened less than six months into Clevesy's 18-month probation for a Cleveland County conviction.

In March 2008, a Cleveland County court ordered Clevesy to take anger management classes after he was found guilty of communicating threats. Clevesy also was ordered to stay off Cleveland County Schools property and to not threaten or harass a victim any further.

News researcher Lamara Williams contributed to this report.