ATHENS, Mich. — A mother and daughter in Calhoun County found themselves in a fight for their lives after they said a man broke into their home and attacked them with a gun.
The two women are sharing their story of fight and grit in hopes that others know they, too, can survive anything.
NOTE: Certain details and pictures in this story may be disturbing to some viewers.
"He had a gun, and he kept pointing it at me and waving it at me," said 19-year-old Allison Denbrock.
Shortly after 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 6, Denbrock was lying in her bed as a man dressed in all black entered her dark room.
"He told me, 'if you scream, I'll shoot,'" she remembered.
Denbrock said she tried to fight back, wrestling with the attacker.
"He pulled me to the ground, and that's when he began suffocating me," she said. "He put one hand over my mouth, and one hand over my face."
She remembered then being able to somehow fight him off for a brief moment.
"I bolted to the door, and that's when he began shooting at me," she said.
Police say it was a BB pistol that the suspect was firing into her back.
"It sounded like very loud pops and it felt like stinging," Denbrock said.
Allison screamed for her mother, Sarah, who had been asleep in another room.
"By this time I'm in tunnel vision running towards (Allison), and she's crawling on the ground towards me," Sarah said.
"As I was standing over her, he puts the gun to my head, and pulls the trigger four times," she added, "but nothing happens."
"He thought there was still stuff in it... he was trying to hurt me."
When the gun proved empty, Sarah said the suspect started pistol-whipping her on the top of her head, and punching her in the face with his other hand. Sarah punched back.
"He was hitting with such force that pieces of the gun are breaking off everywhere," Sarah said. "I could feel the warmth of blood running down my head, but I never stopped hitting him."
"The only thing I literally felt in that moment was anger and rage," she added.
Allison said when she eventually came to, she joined in the fight, kicking the man, and he eventually fell back.
"I swooped in and dragged her by her arms to my room," Sarah said, "and we locked the door and called 911."
Sarah had several gashes in her head that later required staples. Allison suffered nearly a dozen shots to her back, neck, head and knee. Several of the metal BBs were lodged in her skin and had to be removed by doctors.
The two said they later found makeshift zip-tie handcuffs and a beanie hat that were left behind, and that the man had a backpack, but they don't know what was inside.
"I feel like he was definitely trying to get me subdued in my room and then most likely come and hurt my mom, kill my mom," Allison said, "and then probably rape me, and then kill me."
The two also say the man assaulted Allison's cat, Raisin, breaking his hip.
"He didn't come here to steal, or to rob," Sarah said, "he came here to hurt."
Police say the suspect drove away from the scene, and a short time later, a Calhoun County Sheriff's deputy saw a vehicle matching the description provided by the victim on northbound M-66 near B Drive South. The suspect was arrested, and a black BB pistol was found during a search.
But Allison and Sarah said they knew who he was from the beginning: Allison's 22-year-old ex-boyfriend Brandon Conklin. She had broken up with him more than a month earlier, but said he didn't take it well.
"In the last few months of our relationship, I was finally able to get the courage to break it off just out of sheer understanding that I didn't deserve the way he treated me," Allison said. "I think he really wanted me to have a low-confidence version of myself," she added. "Not for myself, but because it made it easier for him to manipulate me."
"I knew he wouldn't take the breakup well, and that's another thing I was really scared of," she added. "I never really expected him to do something this extreme or violent though."
Court documents reveal that Conklin admitted to breaking into the home, intending to hurt Allison, but not kill her.
"I know how I felt in that moment, and I felt like I was going to die," Allison said. "So to still be here and to live past December 6th, it feels almost like a breath of fresh air and I feel like I have a new angle on life."
Brandon Conklin was arraigned before Calhoun County District Judge Paul Beardslee on felony charges of first-degree home invasion and assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder and a misdemeanor charge of aggravated assault. He was released on a $25,000 surety bond on Dec. 7.
"It feels very unfair, and very unjust," Allison said. "He just wants to harm, and cause harm, and I don't think a person like that should be free to go home and work."
"It's just insane that he gets to go about doing what he wants to do while we're scared, staying behind locked doors," Sarah added. "We're just hoping he doesn't come back."
But for both Allison and Sarah, they said they're incredibly proud of each other for fighting back, and saving potentially saving each other's lives that morning.
"She's a tiny, tiny girl," Sarah said about her daughter, "but I'm so proud that she didn't just do what he wanted, and I'm glad to see that she has that fight in her."
"I'm so happy to call her my mom, and I'm proud of what she did," Allison echoed, "but I knew she already had that in her."
"If I would have died in that process, I'd be fine with that," Sarah said, "as long as she got away and was safe."
Allison and Sarah said though, that despite the fact Conklin is out on bond, they still wanted to share their story.
"I had to protect Allison because I knew he wanted her," Sarah said, "and that was not going to happen on my watch."
"It's hard for me to be upset because being so little and being able to fight him off of me, I just feel very just fortunate," Allison said. "And one of the things I keep forgetting, above being a victim and all that, is that I'm also a survivor."
A preliminary exam for Brandon Conklin is scheduled for Jan. 26 with Calhoun County District Judge Paul Beardslee.
The Calhoun County Sheriff's Office Detective Bureau is continuing to investigate this case. Anyone with any information about this incident is asked to call the Calhoun County Sheriff's Office at 269-781-0880 or Silent Observer at 269-964-3888.
If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic abuse, help is available. The National Domestic Abuse Hotline is 800-799-7233
You can also get help by texting the word 'START' to 88-7-88.
SHARING HER STORY
Allison said she knew there were red flags in her relationship with Brandon Conklin, but for months, was afraid to end the relationship out of fear of retaliation.
"It was really rough and it was very scary," Allison said, "and even though I knew I didn't want to be with him, having that attachment to someone can be hard to get away from."
"I couldn't change him myself, and I never really thought that I could," Allison said, "it comes down to, in the end, thinking about yourself and how you want to be treated."
Allison was able to get a Personal Protection Order against Conklin, but she said that was only after he was charged with breaking into her home and assaulting her and her mother on Dec. 7.
"There is some urgency with these types of relationships," she said. "Because even if that person that is abusing you, you have a past, and a history with that person," she added, "and I know that not everybody is in a situation to put their foot down and end the relationship."
Again: If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic abuse, help is available. The National Domestic Abuse Hotline is 800-799-7233
You can also get help by texting the word 'START' to 88-7-88.
THE BOND PROCESS IN MICHIGAN COURTS
Both Allison and Sarah were confused, and concerned as to how Brandon Conklin was able to be released from custody after being charged with three violent felonies.
To get more information, 13 ON YOUR SIDE spoke to Tonya Krause Phelan, a criminal law professor at Western Michigan University's Cooley Law School.
Phelan explained that when it comes to a pretrial release bond, there are two legally-recognized purposes for bond. She said the first is to ensure that the defendant will show up to all future court proceedings, and the second is to protect the community.
In Michigan, Phelan said pretrial releases are controlled by statute in court rules, which set forth a very structured, tiered approach to what types of bonds a judge should set.
"A judge must look at what type of crime is the defendant charged with," she explained.
Phelan explains that it is possible for a judge to hold a defendant without bond if he or she is charged with a violent felony, but to do so, there has to be another condition.
"And that's either that they were on probation, parole or pretrial release when they committed the alleged crime, or that within the past 15 years, they had convictions of two violent felonies," Phelan explained.
For Conklin, two of his charges are considered violent felonies. The third is a misdemeanor. It does not appear that either of the conditions explained above would be considered in Conklin's case.
"So with that being said, a $25,000 bond is it is a significant, and cash surety is the most serious type of bond that a judge can set in these circumstances," Phelan said.
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