photo by: Kansas Department of Corrections

A Lawrence man on Tuesday was ordered to stand trial in Douglas County District Court for a kidnapping charge after a woman testified that he held her down and choked her before she was able to escape to a neighboring apartment.

The man, Eric Shane Knackstedt, 48, is charged with one felony count of kidnapping, one felony count of aggravated domestic battery and a misdemeanor count of intimidating a witness.

The charges relate to an incident on June 15, 2022, when Knackstedt was visiting his former girlfriend, and after a disagreement he allegedly choked her and wouldn’t let her leave.

The woman testified at Tuesday’s preliminary hearing that after a disagreement with Knackstedt she tried to leave multiple times but while she was walking down the stairs from her second-story apartment Knackstedt grabbed her and pulled her back up the stairs. She said he then threw her on the ground.

“He threw me down, straddled me and choked me,” the woman said.

She said that she could barely breathe while Knackstedt choked her and that he eventually let go, stood up and apologized.

“It was hard to breathe. I never lost consciousness, but it was hard,” the woman said.

She said she then tried to get to her cellphone to call police from the bedroom of the apartment but Knackstedt stopped her.

During the altercation, she said she managed to get Knackstedt outside onto the balcony and locked the door behind him. She then ran downstairs to a neighbor’s apartment, but Knackstedt was already on the ground to meet her after jumping from the second-story balcony. She said she evaded Knackstedt and managed to get inside the neighbor’s apartment, where she called the police and waited for them to arrive.

“I was in fear for my life,” the woman said.

Knackstedt was originally charged with felony criminal threat, but after the woman testified, Assistant District Attorney Paula Bustamante said the state was dropping the criminal threat charge and replacing it with a kidnapping charge.

“Two to three times he pulled her away and stopped her from leaving,” Bustamante said.

Judge Amy Hanley said there was sufficient evidence to bind Knackstedt over for trial on the charges.

Knackstedt is facing additional charges of felony aggravated domestic battery and aggravated assault for an incident on July 29, 2022, where he is alleged to have choked the same woman and to have threatened her with a knife, according to charging documents.

Knackstedt is represented by defense attorney Gerald Wells and is scheduled to be arraigned for the June 15 charges and will have a preliminary hearing for the July 29 charges on Oct. 5.

Knackstedt has multiple prior felony convictions, including attempted aggravated domestic battery for choking another woman, felony possession of methamphetamine and felony theft in Douglas and Johnson Counties, according to court records.

He was most recently sentenced by Hanley to nine months in prison for attempted aggravated domestic battery in October 2020, which he served consecutively after a 22-month sentence he received from Hanley in 2018 for drug possession. He was released in January, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records.

Knackstedt was first arrested after the incident on July 29, 2022, and is currently being held at the Douglas County Jail on a $75,000 bond.