GRAND RAPIDS, MI – In a moment, the home that a 77-year-old woman lived in for 53 years – where she raised a family, outlived her husband and then lived alone with her cluttered possessions -- became a house of horror.

The Southeast Side home became the scene of a brutal beating and sexual assault on Sept. 19. The woman said she has not been able to return home since.

“I felt like everything had been ripped away from me,” the woman now says. “I felt like a homeless person.”

In Kent County Circuit Court on Thursday, May 22, the now 78-year-old woman described the night of the attack. She fell asleep on the couch of her home in the 1100 block of Worden Street SE and then awoke to a man savagely beating her.

“I felt like I was on the wrong side of a street brawl,” the woman told a jury. “I felt like I was being used as a punching bag.”

The woman said she tried to get her assailant to at least speak to her, but he remained silent.

The beating did not end until she lapsed into unconsciousness.

The woman awoke to find her underpants were gone and she was in pain from the beating to her face and neck area, but she also was in pain in her private areas.

It was then determined by police and medical personnel that she had been raped.

This week, a jury is hearing from Kent County Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Kevin Bramble who says 31-year-old Shane Swindall Chambers is the person who broke into the home and attacked and raped the woman.

Related: Two elderly women testify they were sexually assaulted by 30-year-old Shane Chambers

Chambers faces a sentence of at least 25 years to life in prison if convicted of first-degree criminal sexual assault, first degree home invasion and assault with intent to do great bodily harm. Chambers is charged as a fourth-felony offender.

Bramble says Chambers was found with the victim’s credit cards, which he allegedly used to buy crack cocaine from a variety of Grand Rapids crack houses. At one of those crack houses, the victim’s purse was discovered.

This is not the first time Chambers has sexually assaulted an older woman, according to Bramble. He was convicted in 2004 of the rape of a 63-year-old woman on the east side of the state. That woman is expected to testify in the trial, which is expected to last into next week.

Defense attorney Valarie Foster says the decade-old conviction of her client is the only reason he is charged now.

She said there is no physical evidence tying him to the alleged crimes. Foster says there is doubt that the woman was even raped because of other health issues which could explain the pain and alleged trauma to her private areas.

Foster said other people were also in possession of the stolen items and that there was a lack of fingerprints and DNA evidence.

“He likes to rape old ladies so it has to be him,” Foster said summarizing the prosecution case. “I find that offensive. Please don’t convict (Chambers) based on the evidence of the old crime.”

In her testimony on Thursday, the victim said she could not identify her attacker because it was dark.

She wept as she looked at photos of herself taken after she awoke from her attack, showing her bloodied and bruised face. They were presented to her by Bramble.

“It was horrible,” she said. “I was brutalized. There is no other way to put it.”

She said her left eye socket was damaged and her nose was broken in three places. She had lacerations on her head requiring staples.

But as devastating as the physical assault, the woman mourned the loss of her home. Police described the house as being a "disaster," piled several feet high with refuse.

The victim said she now resides in an assisted living facility and has never returned to the Worden Street house.

“My children did not want me to go back there,” she said. “I felt like I had no home to go back to.”

Testimony continues Friday before Judge George Buth.

E-mail Barton Deiters: bdeiters@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/GRPBarton or Facebook at facebook.com/bartondeiters.5