GREENFIELD — A boy told a Hancock County jury Wednesday that he’d once sent threatening text messages to a Greenfield man “to scare him” after his friend confided that she’d been sexually abused by the man.
But he’d only sent the text messages to Terrell Gibson, 55, 593 W. Seventh St., Greenfield, at the girl’s urging, he said. And when the adults in their lives found out, it ruined their friendship, he said.
Testimony continued Wednesday in Hancock Circuit Court, where prosecutors are attempting to convince jurors that Gibson is guilty of the 10 sexual assault-related felonies he faces. The charges include counts of sexual misconduct and child molest, records show.
The case against Gibson was filed nearly three years ago after a girl came forward and accused the man of touching her inappropriately and forcing her to engage in sex acts.
Much of the discussion Wednesday focused on various text messages, including inappropriate ones the girl said Gibson sent her but she deleted, and ones her friend says he sent to Gibson at the girl’s request.
The boy who testified Wednesday was the second to tell jurors that the girl confided in him about the abuse before an official report was made to police.
Louis Stump said the girl gave him Gibson’s cellphone number and asked him to text Gibson and scare him. He got into trouble with his parents when the girl’s aunt — her legal guardian — learned about the text and the girl denied knowing Stump was going to threaten Gibson. The misunderstanding ruined their friendship, Stump said.
The state rested its case midday after calling the alleged victim to testify. Two Greenfield Police Department officers who worked the case were also called to the stand to tell the jury about their investigation.
In the afternoon, Bob Elsea, Gibson’s attorney, began presenting Gibson’s defense by playing a video of the man’s wife, who is unwell and could not appear in court, answering questions during a sworn deposition last week.
The victim took the stand first thing Wednesday morning to share details about the abuse, which she says happened repeatedly between 2012 and 2014 whenever she visited Gibson’s home in Greenfield.
The girl told the jury about several instances when Gibson groped her, forced her to touch him inappropriately or engage in sexual acts. The man also sent her inappropriate pictures of himself and other text messages that were of a sexual nature, she testified.
The abuse happened in different areas of Gibson’s home, usually when his wife wasn’t looking or was in another room, she testified.
The girl said that after every encounter with Gibson, he’d ask her if she’d enjoyed what had happened. Her response was always, “I don’t know,” she told the jury.
The jury also heard Wednesday morning from a Greenfield Police Department lieutenant who testified about messages, pictures and other data investigators downloaded from the girl’s cellphone.
Lt. J.D. Fortner said he’d searched through the girl’s cellphone records and couldn’t find any inappropriate texts or images.
But, Fortner added, that doesn’t mean the girl had never received such texts or pictures. Deleted information can be obtained with the department’s forensic technology; but it is possible for deleted files to be lost, he said.
There were gaps in the timeline created by the text messages, Fortner said. But he can’t know if the gaps were because information was deleted or because the girl wasn’t using her phone, he said.
Later in the afternoon, Elsea called Daniel Smith, who specializes in digital forensics with a company called International Investigators Inc.
Smith’s company was hired by Elsea to also review the girl’s cellphone records. Like Fortner, Smith told the jury he didn’t find anything he considered inappropriate within the data he was given. He said it was possible for files to be lost.
Gibson’s wife, Teri Gibson, called her husband “a text-aholic” in the video played for the jury. She said she once had her phone company block his ability to send text messages because he was using his phone too often.
Teri Gibson also said there were rarely times when her husband and the girl were alone together for long periods of time.
She described their relationship as a playful one. The girl was always playing pranks on her husband, like putting rubber bands around the sprayer on the kitchen faucet so that it would shoot Terrell with water when he used the sink, she said.
When Terrell Gibson started received the threatening texts from an unknown phone number, Teri Gibson said she immediately thought it was the girl, assuming it was another of her pranks.
The playful relationship between Terrell Gibson and the girl only changed after the allegations came to light and the couple stopped having contact with the girl, Teri Gibson said.