Houston police investigate an aggravated kidnapping at a home on Jan. 5, 2024. Lee Carter (inset, via Harris County Sheriff’s Office) allegedly kidnapped a woman and held her in his garage against her will for four to five years. (Screenshot via KPRC/YouTube)
Authorities in Texas charged a 52-year-old rapper known as Viper after he allegedly kidnapped a woman and locked her inside his garage for four or five years.
According to a probable cause arrest affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime, Houston police on April 7, 2023, were dispatched to a home on the city’s southeast side for a kidnapping in progress. When officers arrived, they heard a woman’s voice coming from the home near the garage. She said she used a laptop to text 911 for help.
Cops found the woman “extremely malnourished, weighing approximately 70 pounds with a pungent smell coming from complainant’s body,” the affidavit said. Her hair was “crusty” and she wore “filthy” clothes and had no shoes. The fire department pried open the garage door and inside officers found that the door had a plastic lock on it and the windows were boarded up. There was a toilet that didn’t flush, a sink, a mattress with fresh vomit and a 74-inch television, along with assorted chips and Twinkies, according to the affidavit.
The woman told officers about four or five years ago she was pregnant and panhandling on the street in Houston when her now-boyfriend, later identified as Lee Carter, pulled his car over and gave her a dollar. She said Carter left, but returned and asked if she needed help. The woman told Carter she did need help and “against her better judgement” got into his car where he drove her to his house, the complaint said.
She said Carter then placed her in his garage and locked the door so she couldn’t get out. Carter allegedly forced her to have sex with him and take pills and use crack cocaine against her will. The woman told cops on a few previous occasions she was able to text 911 through a laptop for help where officers came and took her to the hospital, but Carter picked her up and took her back to his house where he reportedly again locked her back up in his garage.
She said she tried to run away a couple times but Carter chased her down and put her back in the garage. She “almost daily pled” for Carter to let her leave but he allegedly refused and threatened to physically harm her if she left.
Carter would occasionally allow the woman in the house to take a shower but hadn’t done so in about two months, the affidavit said. Police found text messages between the two when Carter was in jail. He allegedly told her where he hid crack cocaine in the garage and he asked her why she wanted to see him go to prison. He also warned her to be careful how much drugs she takes because when she takes too much she defecates herself, the affidavit said.
A neighbor told police that Carter said he had three women who he keeps “locked inside” with him at various homes in the area. The neighbor said Carter told him that he gave the women food, water and shelter but they were “ungrateful” because they wanted more food and drugs. The neighbor thought “there may be some human trafficking deal going on” or Carter may have been “making porn with the women” but was unsure and figured the police would find out, according to the affidavit.
Houston police obtained a warrant for Carter’s arrest for aggravated kidnapping on Friday and took him to the Harris County Jail where remains on a $100,000 bond. NBC affiliate KPRC reported Houston police entered Carter’s home that day after hours of knocking but could not find the victim.
Carter performs as a rapper under the name “Viper” and gained enough notoriety to have his own Wikipedia page and has more than 90,000 followers on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. His 2008 song “You’ll Cowards Don’t Even Smoke Crack” has garnered over 4 million views on YouTube.
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