Gilbert was arrested within minutes of the incident. In February, Gilbert’s trial was set by Butler County Common Pleas Judge Greg Howard for July 22. At the request of the prosecution, that trial date was continued until today because a witness was out of the country at the time of the trial.
MORE: Miami University student attacked, suspect charged with rape
Last week, Howard continued the trial again at the request of the defense. Defense attorney Chris Pagan requested the continuance because experts have not yet concluded testing needed for trial.
Howard set Gilbert’s new trial date for Jan. 13
Gilbert is free on bond and has been ordered by the judge to remain on a GPS monitoring system, report to his pre-trial services officer weekly in Hamilton and be excluded from Oxford and Miami University.
An Oxford police officer described hearing “blood cur(d)ling screams” just before seeing a Miami University student wearing only one shoe run toward him early on the morning of Sept. 29.
“She was shaking and trembling with fear. I noticed that she was covered in dead grass and leaves from head to toe and her waist belt was undone,” Officer Mark Ledermeier wrote in a police report obtained by this news outlet.
The student told Ledermeier that a man had thrown her to the ground and had punched her so many times in her right ear that she was having trouble hearing out of it.
While being attacked, the woman said she saw the lights from Ledermeier’s police cruiser, which was stopped nearby as he wrote a ticket for a vehicle registration violation.
MORE: Miami student saw police lights while being raped and ran to officer, police say
“She stated that the male held her down on the ground and told her to ‘shut up,’ likely because he witnessed my overhead lights as well. She stated that she fought back and punched the male several times as well to get him off her,” according to the police report.
During her screams and struggle, the man assaulting her fled on foot, the woman told police.
She later identified Gilbert, whom police stopped nearby on East Central Avenue, as her alleged attacker.
MORE: 2 Butler County animal cruelty cases, 2 declined indictments by grand juries
About the Author
