Joshua Hubert in court during his dangerousness hearing related to the kidnapping charges of a 7-year-old girl, Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017, in Worcester, Mass (Chris Christo/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool).
A Massachusetts man faces the prospect of decades behind bars after a shocking kidnapping and attack on his friend”s young daughter.
On Thursday, a Worcester County jury found 43-year-old Joshua Hubert guilty of attempted murder by drowning, attempted murder by strangling, strangulation or suffocation, and kidnapping a child under 16 years.
He was acquitted of two counts of aggravated rape of a child.
The underlying incident occurred on Aug. 27, 2017.
According to prosecutors, Hubert kidnapped a 7-year-old girl, sexually assaulted her in his car, and then threw her off a bridge on the Interstate 290 overpass into Lake Quinsigamond, which is between Worcester and Shrewsbury.
The girl, now 15 years old, survived the fall, swam to shore, and sought aid at a home on the Shrewsbury side of the lake.
“Thankfully, an even greater tragedy was avoided,” said Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. in August 2017. “The young victim managed to swim to shore and find assistance.”
The kidnapping happened at the child’s grandparents’ home on Forestdale Road in Worcester around 2:30 a.m. Hubert had been at a barbecue there and was acquainted with the family, being friends with the girl’s father, as noted by The Boston Globe.
It is believed Hubert took the girl from a chair while she was asleep late during the gathering. The girl, who took the stand during the trial, initially thought it was her grandfather lifting her but realized it was Hubert putting her in his car when she awoke, according to MassLive.
The defendant then drove around with the victim for some 90 minutes before the attack and subsequent disposal attempt.
“Oops, I guess we’re lost,” Hubert said at one point, the girl testified.
The girl went on to say she kicked her assailant during the attack – and relayed some of her feelings and survival efforts.
“I was thinking that he wanted me dead,” she said. “If I breathed really lightly and quietly, he would think that I was dead and everything would stop.”
Prosecutors alleged the defendant choked and raped the girl in the backseat of his vehicle and then “placed a bag over [the girl’s] head and secured the bag with a rope in an attempt to murder her,” according to court documents obtained by the Globe.
“The victim stated that she fell for a long time and landed in the waters below,” a Worcester Police Department detective wrote in a search warrant affidavit obtained by MassLive.
During the trial, which began in early September and spanned exactly two weeks, the girl also testified she was “slightly relieved” to find herself in the water because it meant “he couldn’t hurt me anymore.”
The swim was some 100 yards across a lake with depths of up to 90 feet. She finally arrived at a house where a woman wrapped her in a towel and gave her Batman pajamas to wear. Then she was taken to a hospital where she watched the Disney show “Doc McStuffins” and answered what questions she could at the time.
After her miraculous survival, the girl told police her “friend Josh” was the man who threw her off the bridge, according to MassLive.
Hubert made bail in 2018. He was later indicted on the rape charges in 2022, when the girl said she realized what rape entailed, but remained released on a personal recognizance bond.
During the trial, it was shown that the DNA on the girl’s underwear from the night of the incident did not match the defendant.
But another potential defense advantage did not sway jurors.
Last week, Hubert’s attorney secured a one-day pause after belatedly receiving cellular phone location data from an expert hired by the state, which he described as “exculpatory in that [the findings] are inconsistent with the defendant being on or near the I-290 bridge at the time the complaining witness was allegedly thrown in the water.”
The defendant’s attorney has said he will appeal the conviction.
“There’s a lot of things in this case that are appealable, probably the biggest one being the late disclosure,” defense attorney Kevin Larson said, MassLive reported after the verdict.
Hubert faces a maximum sentence of 35 years behind bars. Sentencing is slated for Oct. 3.
