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Bond for Hubbard was previously set at $2 million, but his attorney Chris Pagan told a magistrate Monday that his client was not “any type of flight risk.”
However, Assistant Butler County Prosecutor Kraig Chadrick told Magistrate Harold Reed that a jail house phone call indicates Hubbard could run.
“There is a jail phone call between Mr. Hubbard and his girlfriend where he indicates that if he gets any kind of bond he is going to flee,” Chadrick said. “So his own words kind of contradict the idea that he is not a flight risk, so we would ask for a high bond.”
Reed, however, lowered Hubbard’s bond to $50,000, noting the teen’s lack of adult record and minimal juvenile record. He also took note of Hubbard’s family support, with his mother and several others in attendance for Monday morning’s court hearing.
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But that bond only lasted about three hours.
At the request of the prosecution, Hubbard’s second bond hearing was held before Common Pleas Judge Michael Oster, who withdrew the $50,000 bond and ordered the teen to be held without bond until an Oct. 1 hearing.
Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser was at the second hearing and sparred with Pagan when the defense attorney claimed members of the media had heard the jail house call, but he had not.
“No the media has not (heard the call)…” Gmoser said. “I want to make clear, it has not been released.”
Pagan said he did not want to be “sandbagged” before he had reviewed evidence or heard the phone conversation.
Oster stopped the arguing, stating, “It is my courtroom. I am going to set the rules.”
“I would like due process before we address things I haven’t seen or heard,” Pagan told the judge.
The defense attorney said he did not object to bond being withdrawn by the judge until next week’s hearing.
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The Journal-News has requested to hear the jail house call in question, but Gmoser said he will not release the recording until the hearing.
“I will withhold giving the press a transcription or a copy of that recording until such time the hearing is rescheduled … it will be played in court at that time,” Gmoser said.
Hamilton police arrested Hubbard three days after the slaying of Gilbert, a Wilson Middle School student.
Gilbert was shot and killed at about 6:30 p.m. Aug. 29 at an apartment complex in the 800 block of Front Street, police said.
The boy died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Butler County Coroner’s Office. His death has been ruled a homicide.
The second victim — Datorion Marcus Burns, 19, of Hamilton — suffered multiple gunshot wounds, according to Hamilton police. Burns is recovering.
The grand jury also indicted a second Hamilton teen, Kameron O. Tunstall, 18, on the same charges for the shooting death and felonious assault. Tunstall’s bond was set at $500,000 during an arraignment by Common Pleas Judge Charles Pater.
Reed was presiding over the case Monday morning because Judge Noah Powers recused himself since he and Pagan were former law partners in Middletown.
The case is now assigned to Oster.
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