Jasonville man charged with intimidation and battery with a deadly weapon

A Jasonville man allegedly used a wooden club in an attack on a family member on Monday night. In court today, he was charged with two Level 5 felonies, involving intimidation and battery with a deadly weapon.

Joshua Gilbert

Joshua Robert Gilbert, 33, of Jasonville, was arrested on Monday night, May 27, by Sgt. Bobby Pierce of the Greene County Sheriff’s Department.

Sgt. Pierce, the investigating officer, and GCSD Deputy Alan Jackson were on their way to Gilbert’s residence in the area of County Road 500 North after the sheriff’s department got a phone call from a man who said Gilbert had threatened to do harm to himself. The caller said he’d talked to Gilbert on the phone around 8 p.m. that night. The deputies responded to do a welfare check on Gilbert.

While they were on the way, a woman called 911 to report Gilbert, her son, needed to be taken in for an evaluation because he was screaming and acting out of his mind. She said when she left her home to get away from the situation, Gilbert was outside the house with his father, and Gilbert had a club in his hand.

When Sgt. Pierce and Deputy Jackson arrived, the father told them he’d been outside stacking wood when Gilbert approached him with a club in his hand, threatened to kill him, then hit him in the leg and in the arm with the club. He said Gilbert attempted to hit him over his head but he had blocked the club with his arm. The father said he was scared and could see a “gloss” in his son’s eyes.

According to Sgt. Pierce, the father said he ran and locked himself inside his semi-truck parked in the yard but then Gilbert busted the side window out of the semi and swung the club through the window. At that point he was able to grab the club and get it away from Gilbert.

Gilbert was inside the residence when deputies got there.

Sgt. Pierce reported the man sustained redness, swelling and bruising to his left leg, upper left forearm and left forearm plus a laceration on his left forearm. He later went to the hospital for medical treatment – no fractures were reported.

Gilbert sustained a laceration on an elbow, sustained on the broken window of the semi-truck.

Sgt. Pierce reported Gilbert claimed he was innocent and there was no physical altercation, only a verbal altercation, and that his parents were lying.

Photographs were taken of the scene and the damaged semi-truck. Sgt. Pierce said the club was a large piece of cut wood from a tree branch that was approximately 2-2.5 feet long and approximately 3-4 inches round.

Gilbert was taken into custody, transported and booked into the Greene County Jail around 10:18 p.m.

Criminal charges were filed against Gilbert on Tuesday and when he appeared in Greene Circuit Court today, Thursday, May 30, a no-contact order was put into place and he was charged with:

• Domestic battery by means of a deadly weapon, a Level 5 felony,

• Intimidation – defendant draws or uses a deadly weapon, a Level 5 felony, and

• Criminal mischief, a Class B misdemeanor.

A public defender was appointed to represent Gilbert and Judge Erik Allen ordered his bond remain set at $20,500 surety with ten percent cash allowed.