A Massachusetts man has been sentenced to nearly three decades in prison for the horrific crime of kidnapping and attempting to murder a young girl, then just seven years old. Joshua Hubert, 43, faced justice on Friday as a jury convicted him of multiple charges, including attempted murder by drowning and strangulation, as well as child kidnapping. The Worcester County District Attorney announced the verdict, which carries a prison sentence of 28 to 30 years. Hubert was, however, acquitted of two counts of aggravated rape of a child.

The tragic series of events unfolded on August 26, 2017. Hubert had been attending a cookout with the young girl’s family. In the early hours of the following day, as the child slept, he abducted her, strangled her, and shockingly threw her from a bridge on Interstate 290 into Lake Quinsigamond. Demonstrating remarkable courage and resilience, the girl survived the fall and managed to swim about 100 yards to safety, ultimately finding help at a nearby house.

Now 15, the girl bravely penned a victim impact statement that was presented by prosecutors during Hubert’s sentencing. Her words shed light on the terrifying ordeal she endured.

“I saw his face when he placed me in the car. I saw his face when he strangled me,” the statement read, as reported by the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. She recounted Hubert deceitfully telling her they were lost and that her parents had supposedly entrusted him to take her home.

Her account continued with haunting reflections: “The first time I realized I was in danger, all I was thinking was that I wanted to see my mom again. As we drove around for what seemed like hours, I wondered about the life I thought I’d never get to live. How I’d never get to be the big kid, the high school student, a mom, all because my life ended only seven years after it began.”

She continued: “The first time I realized I was in danger, all I was thinking was that I wanted to see my mom again. As we drove around for what seemed like hours, I wondered about the life I thought I’d never get to live. How I’d never get to be the big kid, the high school student, a mom, all because my life ended only seven years after it began.”

The teen said the ordeal gave her the “same recurring nightmare” which involved Hubert breaking into her home and murdering her and her family. She said whenever she replayed the events of that awful night she saw it in the third-person “almost like a sick and twisted movie.”

It has left her fearful for others.

“I’m afraid for little girls who trust unknowingly. I’m afraid for my younger cousins to know the dangers of the world. I’m afraid for my future children. I’m scared that since I couldn’t protect myself, I won’t be able to protect anyone else,” she reportedly wrote.

The girl’s mother also spoke to the court about the impact the incident has had on her daughter. Before the incident, the girl was “pure sunshine” and was always singing and dancing. But afterward, she had to learn how to be a kid again and has undergone years of therapy.

“She has gone through more in her 15 years than most people go through in their entire lives and that’s not fair,” her mother reportedly said.

As Law&Crime previously reported, the kidnapping occurred at the child’s grandparents’ home on Forestdale Road in Worcester at around 2:30 a.m. on the day in question. Hubert had been attending a barbecue at the family’s home, and was said to be familiar with the family due to his friendship with the girl’s father, according to a report by The Boston Globe.

Hubert is believed to have abducted the girl from a chair while she slept during the waning hours of the get-together. The girl, who testified during the trial, said she initially believed it was her grandfather picking her up but awoke to find the defendant putting her in his car, MassLive reported.

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 she 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 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 he 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 month, Hubert’s attorney secured a one-day pause after belatedly receiving cellphone 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.