Vile acts detailed in opening statement as trial for Pleasant Hill man charged with assaulting wife, sons begins

WARNING: This story includes descriptions of explicit violence and graphic sexual content that may be considered profane, vulgar or offensive to some readers. Reader discretion is advised.

PITTSFIELD, Ill. — “Make yourself a bowl of dog food. You’ll eat it on the floor like an obedient bitch.”

Assistant State’s Attorney Leecia Carnes didn’t mess around with the first sentence of her opening statement to a jury of eight women and four men on Tuesday afternoon during the second day of the Austin Rodhouse trial in Pike County Circuit Court before Judge Charles H.W. Burch.

She repeated the words Rodhouse texted to his wife, referred to in court documents as “CC,” on May 4, 2024. She then said after CC did as she was told and was on her hands and knees in the kitchen, Rodhouse walked in and kicked her in the abdomen, rupturing her spleen.

“This particular argument between Austin and (CC) had started in late hours of May 3,” Carnes said. “He was mad at (CC) because she did not do her journaling that he had required her to do.”

When Austin returned home later that day, he found CC passed out on the floor. He took her to a hospital in Louisiana, Mo. CC eventually was released, but days later when she complained of abdominal pain, she was taken to Blessing Hospital in Quincy for surgery.

Carnes addressed the jury for nearly an hour, providing horrifying, graphic and disturbing details about the life of Austin and CC Rodhouse and their two sons in Pleasant Hill. 

Defense attorney Casey Schnack’s opening statement was only 14 minutes long. She said what she expects to happen during the next few days is that the state will be “throwing mud at the wall and hoping that something sticks.”

“They’re hoping that you hear enough bad things that you will just decide that somebody should be guilty of something because all of this sounds so bad and so horrendous,” Schnack said. “That is not your job, and that is not what you are being asked to do.”

Rodhouse was charged with aggravated domestic battery when he was arrested on May 8. The Illinois State Police Division of Criminal Investigation initiated an investigation after being notified that Rodhouse’s wife was at Blessing Hospital in Quincy. Rodhouse eventually was charged with 48 domestic violence and sex-related felonies.

However, Carnes and Pike County State’s Attorney Walker Filbert filed a motion on Monday for nolle prosequi — a formal entry of record by the prosecuting attorney who declares he or she is unwilling to prosecute a case — on 29 of those felonies. They didn’t want to prosecute Rodhouse on all 48 felonies because of speedy trial concerns.

Rodhouse now is charged with:

• 3 counts of aggravated domestic battery, a Class 2 felony with a sentencing range of between three and seven years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. 
• 1 count of criminal sexual assault involving force, a Class 1 felony with a sentencing range of between four and 15 years in prison.
• 4 counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, a Class X felony with a sentencing range of six to 60 years.
• 3 counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, a Class X felony with a sentencing range of six to 30 years in prison.
• 2 counts of child pornography, a Class X felony with a sentencing range of six to 30 years in prison.
• 3 counts of indecent solicitation of an adult, a Class 2 felony with a sentencing range of three to seven years in prison.
• 3 counts of aggravated battery to a child, a Class 3 felony with a sentencing range of two to five years in prison.

Schnack told the jury that CC, “the star witness for the state,” is an admitted child predator, an admitted child abuser and an admitted liar. 

“That is who the state is wanting you to rely on to take Austin’s constitutional presumption of innocence away from him,” Schnack said.

She said much of the evidence in the trial will center around the concept of free will.

“I believe the evidence will show that (CC) went into a relationship with Austin of her own free will, that she consented to the relationship with Austin under her own free will, that she stayed in the relationship under her own free will, and while that relationship may not have been traditional, and while it may not have been a relationship that some of us in this room agree with, it was theirs to cultivate, and that’s how they lived,” Schnack said.

“You will hear about things that (CC) consented to, that (CC) had free will over. You will hear that (CC) consented to things such as spankings, floggings and acts that may have caused her to bruise and bleed. From Miss Carnes’ perspective, all of this was subjected to (CC), was put on (CC), was forced on (CC). It’s just not the case, ladies and gentlemen.”

Carnes’ opening statement was a litany of acts that Austin allegedly forced upon CC since they met on a dating app when she was 22 years old living in Columbus, Ohio, and Austin was working on a pipeline one hour away from Columbus. Among the things the jury learned was:

• Austin once painted CC’s body blue, put her in a bathtub with green food coloring and told her he was “done with your bulls**t. I’ll beat the ego and hard-headed out of you. From now on, I’m taking all of your independence. You don’t get to live like this without obeying.”
• Austin had sex with CC hours after she was released from the hospital on May 4, telling her that having sex is “good for her blood pressure.”
• CC’s body was covered in welts, scars and tattoos — such as “Owned by Rodhouse” on the neck, “Austin” on the forehead and others near sexual organs — when she was examined by Blessing Hospital staff on May 7.
• Austin required for CC to be naked from the waist down while in the house, and she had to ask permission to put on underwear.
• Austin forced CC to take daily nude photographs of herself and send them to him. If he wasn’t at home and he asked her to perform a sex act on herself, she was expected to take a video and send it to him.
• Austin forced her to pierce her vagina, and from those piercings, CC would hang little weights because “he wants to stretch out her vaginal lips,” Carnes said.
• Austin forced CC to have vaginal and oral sex with their children, ages 3 and 4. Those acts also were recorded on video. If CC refused, Austin gave her punishments such as tattoos, beatings and whippings.
• Austin forced CC to try to insert large objects into her rectum. If she failed, he would try to force them in himself, often causing bleeding and tearing.
• Austin gave CC “alcohol enemas.” Bags filled with alcohol were inserted into her rectum, resulting in a quick and intense intoxication.
• Austin used a cattle prod to shock CC and their sons.
• Austin hit CC in the head with a wooden tire thumper that truckers use to check air pressure in tires.
• Austin used a vice to break CC’s finger.
• Austin told CC on multiple occasions he would kill her.

Carnes also told the jury of several women who Austin had sexual relationships with and often involved CC in “threesomes” with those women. “He wanted them to be his ‘sister wives,’” Carnes said.

Rodhouse showed little reaction and spent most of the day scribbling notes during jury selection and testimony. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.