ARTESIA – Investigators said a 76-year old Lowndes County man who allegedly raped his 16-year old granddaughter – more than once – may be headed to trial next month. David Arthur Gill was arrested after he was indicted by the Lowndes County Grand Jury in 2010 and his bond was set at $40,000.
Detective James Faris, of the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department, said charges against Gill were made on June 10, 2010 after the granddaughter reported the rape to authorities.
“The granddaughter went to a friend’s house and told her friend about it and the friend took her to the hospital,” Faris said.
Lowndes County investigators were called to a hospital in Clay County where the teen was being treated for the alleged rape.
“They did a normal sexual assault kit on her and I spoke with her there,” Faris said. “And I told her once she was released to come [to the sheriff’s office] and speak to me.”
Faris said the teen and her father, Gill’s son, lived with Gill at his home in the 7700 block of Gilmer Wilburn Road in Artesia. The teen’s father was often away at work and that’s when the teen said the alleged assaults took place.
“She claimed it happened more than once,” Faris said. “Her dad was working out of town and the alleged assaults occurred within the last six or seven months [of her reporting it].”
Faris did not state, pending the investigation, why the teen waited until the last alleged assault to report the incidents or why Gill was not arrested on June 10. But he did say Gill allegedly confessed to the crimes and after the case was presented to the grand jury he was indicted and arrested.
Gill was scheduled to appear in court in November 2010, but Faris said his case was continued until the next term of circuit court in Lowndes County which begins in May.
Faris expects Gill will plea to avoid a trial.
“He may plead guilty since he already confessed to it to get a lesser sentence,” Faris said. “But [it’s unlikely] he’ll ever get out of jail because of his age.”
Faris said Gill has no prior criminal charges in Lowndes County and an evaluation of his mental status had not been ordered or conducted.
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