From dating ‘Prince Charming’ to being ‘used and abused daily,’ Rodhouse’s wife feared for her sons’ lives and her life

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. — People in the courtroom for each day of the Austin Rodhouse trial knew the video eventually would be played. Judge Charles H.W. Burch warned everybody in a Pike County courtroom on Monday that some of the afternoon testimony would be graphic.

It didn’t make it any easier to watch.

Even closing your eyes didn’t prevent one from hearing the water splash in the tub when Rodhouse’s wife, identified in court documents as “CC,” took a bath with her 4-year-old son — and recorded their sex act on her phone — on May 1. 

Some members of the eight-woman, four-man jury looked down, covered their mouths or simply refused to watch. One man ignored the screen and kept his eyes on Rodhouse. When CC said she straddled her 3-year-old son in the living room and Rodhouse assisted with the sex act, one female juror put her hand to her heart and looked at Rodhouse with disgust.

Rodhouse, who turns 31 this month, has been stoic throughout the trial, often scribbling notes. However, when the video was on three TV screens in the courthouse, he buried his head in his hands and nervously tapped his foot on the floor.

His trial began its second week on Monday. He is being tried on 19 domestic violence and sex-related felonies.

• 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 in prison.
• 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.

No promise made to not charge CC

Dr. Dakota Lammy, a family medical physician at Illini Rural Health Care Clinic in Pittsfield, testified for the first 15 minutes on Monday morning. He said he met with CC twice about possible depression and anxiety issues before he saw her on May 7 when she had suffered a ruptured spleen.

When CC took the stand without the jury in the courtroom, Burch asked Pike County Assistant State’s Attorney Leecia Carnes about any “assurances” that may have been given to CC for her participation as a witness in the case.

Carnes said she sent a letter to Coonrod on May 22 stating any information that CC shared with law enforcement or Department of Child and Family Services employees regarding abuse against her two minor children would not be used against her for any criminal prosecution, as long as the information was truthful.

Carnes said in a prepared statement to Muddy River News that no charges have been filed against CC, but she also doesn’t have immunity. 

“By (May 22), she’d already made incriminating statements that could be used against her, but obviously we wanted her further cooperation,” Carnes said. “There are a lot of factors that have gone into not filing charges, but she also knows that there’s no promise not to charge her.”

CC also asked to speak with John Coonrod, her attorney, before agreeing to testify. She said she is aware she could be charged with a crime but still wanted to testify “for my safety. I wanted to prevent anything happening further.”

Couple met on Tinder, married in Niagara Falls

CC wore a beige top with black tailored pants tied at the waist and a matching black blazer. Her hair was changed since photos were taken of her at Blessing Hospital in May with longer, pastel-colored hair. She had a dirty blonde bob with highlights when she appeared in the courtroom on Monday.

CC explained how she met Rodhouse in the spring of 2018 on Tinder, then dated him in Ohio when he was working on a pipeline. She called him “Prince Charming” who made her feel like “the only girl in the world.” He proposed marriage on their first date, but when she said no, Rodhouse said, “I’m only going to ask you one more time.”

About a year into their relationship, things changed. CC said Rodhouse called her names and told her repeatedly to “get your head out of your a**.” She left him to return to live with her parents, but Rodhouse showed up at their home a week later trying to win her back.

“It worked,” she said.

Rodhouse and CC got married in Niagara Falls, N.Y., in 2019. Their first child was born in North Carolina, and then they moved to Florida before returning to Pike County when COVID hit in March 2020.

She said Rodhouse did not allow her to leave the house, handle money, buy groceries or clothes or get her hair done without his permission. He became mentally abusive before they returned to Illinois. “I felt like absolutely nothing,” CC said.

Carnes then asked about the events of May 3. CC said Rodhouse wasn’t happy that she didn’t finish her journaling and forced her to stand naked with vaginal weights in front of an air conditioner for two hours. If she did something wrong, Rodhouse gave her a “couple of smacks” with steel chopsticks.

Rodhouse then covered her face in blue dye and forced her into a bathtub with green food coloring in the water. She said Rodhouse wanted her to look like the arrogant Hollywood producer in the 2002 movie, “Big Fat Liar.”

“I was used and abused daily. I was numb. I was just there,” she said. 

Rodhouse said sex after hospital visit would help blood pressure

Rodhouse told her to get herself a bowl of dog food on the morning of May 4.  When she was on her knees eating it, he kicked her while wearing cowboy boots and then left. When he returned, he found CC passed out on the floor and took her to Pike County Memorial Hospital in Louisiana, Mo., where she was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection.

CC said she felt terrible when she got home, having trouble walking or breathing. However, Rodhouse wanted sex.

“He looked up on Google how it would help my blood pressure,” CC said. “He was just trying to show me that I was in the wrong and that he was going to do it anyway.”

She eventually saw Lummy on May 7, and Rodhouse drove her to Blessing Hospital in Quincy because “he said we couldn’t afford an ambulance,” CC said. After her surgery on May 8, she returned to her room to see three troopers with the Illinois State Police in her room. 

“My first thought was, ‘Oh, no, they’re here for me,’” CC said.

After telling the troopers she was injured getting into the bathtub when she heard tornado sirens, she said, “I know that that’s a lie, and I’m thinking that I’m gonna get in trouble.”

She eventually told Ereka Glass and Jordan Gerard that Rodhouse had blackmailed her, claiming he had a video of CC giving oral sex to her son. He had told her he was going to turn it in, and CC was going to be convicted and serve a life sentence.

“He told me I was gonna get beaten, I was gonna get raped, and I was gonna get stabbed (in prison),” she said.

Carnes asked why she performed the sex act with her son. CC said Austin told her to do it.

“I was in fear for my life and my children’s life,” she said.

Telling Rodhouse no wasn’t an option

CC said Austin controlled every aspect of her life. She had to work out three times a day for two hours each time. She said she was required to send him at least eight nude photos and at least five videos of her using sex toys every day. He also told her to begin taking anabolic steroids, because he wanted her to become a female bodybuilder.

Telling him no wasn’t an option. 

She described how in November 2022, when Rodhouse was in Utah, how she took video of her giving oral sex to her son, who had not yet turned 1. 

“He told me he would leave me if I didn’t do it,” she said. “I was in fear for my life. If I wasn’t around, I thought the boys’ lives would be in danger.” 

Describing that moment was the first time Rodhouse’s wife dabbed tears in her eyes.

She said Rodhouse made her write “vivid” stories in her journaling. She wrote about how Rodhouse caught her naked and let her son have sex with her, and that she knew her parents would be “disappointed and disgusted” and disown her from their family.

“Did that happen?” Carnes asked.

“No,” CC replied.

CC said she tried to leave and go to a shelter in Jacksonville, but she didn’t. Rodhouse gave her a “property of Austin Rodhouse” tattoo as a punishment afterward. The family moved shortly thereafter to the Virginia/West Virginia border and lived in a trailer. They took a 19-year-old girl with them, and Rodhouse said if the girl left, he was going to “throw (CC) off the mountain.”

When Rodhouse lost his job, the family returned to Pike County, where CC said the beatings intensified. Carnes shows her several photos showing bruises and black eyes. CC said the punishments were almost daily and he once used a steel branding iron to “brand” her. 

One time when she undercooked hamburger, she had three minutes to eat all the hamburger or he would hit her hand with a baseball bat. The three-minute clock would reset, and CC would resume the hamburger. When her hand bled, Rodhouse heated a butcher knife and cauterized the wound.

CC also told the story of when Rodhouse’s mother, Delilah Schmidt, called the police after CC called her to tell her that her son had hit her. Shortly after that, CC said Rodhouse tried to hang her from a rope hanging from a rafter in their Pleasant Hill house. 

“I was naked, my hands were tied over my head and he was zapping me all over my body with a cattle prod,” CC said. “It stuns you like a million rubber bands snapping.”

She got her hands free, then pulled herself up the rope and kicked Rodhouse. He then put the rope around her neck and started pulling, eventually letting go. She then blacked out after he put her in a rear naked choke hold.

“I remember when I came back, I was laying on the bed, and he was lying next to me,” CC said. “He said, ‘OK, you were out for 30 seconds. But next time I do it, you’re not gonna wake back up.’”

Testimony is expected to resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Rodhouse, a Pleasant Hill native, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

MRN Content Creator Aspen Gengenbacher contributed to this story.