EUGENE, Ore. -- An 11-year-old girl testified Tuesday in the trial of the man accused of kidnapping and assaulting her, saying she feared for her life during the 58-minute abduction.

Malcolm Michael Gerlach has admitted to abducting the girl, then 10, raping her and attempting to elude police during a chase in rural Lane County -- but says he was insane at the time.

Gerlach's defense is that he suffers from a mental disorder or defect that prevented him from understanding the criminality of his actions.  The jury is determining whether or not that is true.

The young girl told jurors Gerlach knocked her off her bike as she was riding to a friend's house in the Santa Clara area on January 20.  KVAL News is not releasing her name because she is a minor, as is our policy.  Instead of asking the girl to describe the assault on the stand, prosecutor Erik Hasselman showed jurors a DVD of an interview with the victim the day after the attack.

In the video, the girl tells her interviewer, "I was afraid he was going to kill me."  The girl says she did not believe Gerlach when he said he was not going to kill her.

The girl said she tried to run from Gerlach and started "screaming bloody murder" after he knocked her off her bike with the stolen car he driving.  When Gerlach grabbed her, she went to the car with him because she didn't want to get hurt.  Initially, the victim was reluctant to talk about the assault, but told the interviewer Gerlach drove her to an empty field and assaulted her.

Afterward, Gerlach started driving again.  The victim said she looked out the window and saw the first star in the sky, which she called Jesus' star.

"I just begged a whole bunch of police would come and save me," said the victim.

That's what happened.  Neighbors who heard the victim's screams called police.  One neighbor, the victim's bus driver, drove after the vehicle carrying Gerlach and the victim but lost sight of it.  They were able to give police a description of the car and what direction it was heading.  Police located the car 58 minutes later and, when Gerlach attempted to flee, used a defense driving manuever to make the vehicle flip over, ending the high speed chase.

Gerlach kept his head down during most of the girl’s testimony and while the DVD was played, avoiding looking at the victim.

Following her testimony, the state called an expert witness, Dr. Eric Johnson, a psychiatrist.  He testified he does not believe Gerlach suffers from a chronic mental illness.

Earlier in the trial, jurors heard from defense witnesses who testified Gerlach was prescribed medicine for psychosis.  Jurors also heard about Gerlach's criminal history as a juvenile and an adult, as well as his troubled childhood.  According to court testimony, Gerlach was abused and neglected as a child.  His parents were chronic drug users.

A Roseburg woman also testified on Tuesday that Gerlach grabbed her in an attempt to rape her while she worked at Formally Yours, a tuxedo store in Roseburg, days before he abducting the victim.

KVAL News requested to cover this trial with our camera, but that request was denied by the court.