But today, after talking with prosecutors and attorneys in chambers, Butler County Common Pleas Judge Michael Oster set bond at $1.5 million. Hubbard is scheduled to be back in court next month for a pre-trial hearing.
Gilbert’s aunt, who declined to give her name, was in the front row wearing a T-shirt with her dead nephew’s picture.
“I want justice. He was an innocent bystander,” the woman said.
MORE: Jail phone call delays bond ruling in teen’s case
Bond for Hubbard was first set at $2 million in Hamilton Municipal Court the morning after his arrest. However, his attorney Chris Pagan later told a magistrate during arraignment Sept. 24 that his client was not “any type of flight risk.”
Assistant Butler County Prosecutor Kraig Chadrick argued that a phone call Hubbard made from jail contradicted Pagan’s claim.
“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 in arguing for a higher bond.
A magistrate, however, lowered Hubbard’s bond to $50,000, noting the teen’s lack of adult record and minimal juvenile record.
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At the request of the prosecution, a 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.
At the Oct. 1 hearing, Pagan said after receiving more than 100 jail house calls from the prosecution, he learned that Hubbard’s personal identification number used for making such calls had been stolen. There was no mention of a possible stolen personal identification number at Monday’s hearing.
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 co-defendant in the case, Kameron Tunstall, 18, who is facing the same charges, was given bond of $500,000. Prosecutors say Tunstall conspired with Hubbard, but that Hubbard pulled the trigger.
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