Surveillance video from the outside of a Cincinnati McDonald’s captured what a prosecutor called a night of “sheer night of terror” for a woman, as she tried to escape from a car driven by her ex-boyfriend. The trial for the man seen in the video began on Tuesday at the Hamilton County Courthouse.

USA Today reports that Jessica Wilson, 27, tried desperately to get help for herself and her 2-year-old daughter last July, after her former boyfriend drove up to a McDonald’s drive-thru. As the car came to a stop by the window, Wilson got out, and with her daughter in her arms, tried to make it to safety. That’s when her former boyfriend, identified as Levenski Crossty, got out of the driver’s seat and grabbed Wilson.

Wilson managed to make her way around to the McDonald’s window, where an employee stretches her arms out in an apparent attempt to take the toddler to safety. Yet, before the employee could pull the child in, Crossty intervened. He snatched the little girl from Wilson’s hands, got in the car, and drove away with the toddler on his lap. Wilson, who appeared dazed and puzzled for a brief moment, started walking after the car.

The abuse started earlier that evening, according to Assistant Prosecutor Matthew Broo. Prior to the McDonald’s incident, Crossty allegedly broke into Wilson’s home, that she shares with her four children. Crossty is the father of the youngest child. Wilson said he was “ranting and raving” so much that she had to lock herself in the bathroom. At some point, Wilson and all four kids ended up Crossty’s Pontiac Grand Am, but Wilson was beaten so badly that she can’t remember how or why they ended up in his car.

The beatings got worse in the car when Wilson refused to Crossty the password to her phone. Wilson finally convinced him to drive to McDonald’s after telling him that the children were hungry.

“He kept hitting me, wouldn’t stop.”

Crossty is charged with  felonious assault, theft, kidnapping, and abduction.

[Feature Photo: Hamilton County Jail]