Man accused in vicious sexual assault makes court appearance
A man accused of beating, biting and sexually assaulting a woman he was living with made an appearance Monday in a Bowie County courtroom.
Jonathan Keith Gressman, 32, appeared in cuffs and shackles before 202nd District Judge John Tidwell for a pre-indictment hearing Monday afternoon with Shoaib Daredia of the Bowie County Public Defender’s Office. Daredia asked Tidwell to refer the case to the grand jury for consideration so that if Gressman is indicted, the case can begin proceeding forward to a trial if necessary.
Gressman came to the attention of the Bowie County Sheriff’s Office when an investigator with the Naples, Texas, Police Department contacted BCSO Lt. George Huggins in July, according to a probable cause affidavit used to create the following account. The Naples police told Huggins a woman in a Mount Pleasant, Texas, hospital had been sexually assaulted at a house in Bowie County.
Huggins traveled to Mount Pleasant and interviewed the woman. She alleged Gressman, her live-in-boyfriend at the time, was drinking July 18 when he became upset that she did not want to be intimate with him at their home on U.S. Highway 67 in Simms, Texas. The woman claimed Gressman struck her with the metal part of a cane and choked her.
The woman reported that she was able to get away from Gressman some time after dark and ran from the couple’s home. Gressman allegedly followed her in his car, found her hiding in a ditch and forced her into his car. Inside the car, Gressman allegedly bit the woman’s nose and drove her back to the house.
Back at the residence, Gressman allegedly continued to beat her with a cane and bit her left breast. The woman said Gressman pulled a recessed knife from the cane and held it to her head, threatening to stab her with it if she refused to perform a sex act. The woman said Gressman allegedly told her to “call him daddy and say yes sir” during the assault.
The woman waited until Gressman fell asleep and fled to her mother’s home in Naples, where she called 911.
Huggins observed bruising on the woman’s arms and neck, a bite mark and blood on her nose, blood around her right ear, and swelling and redness around her eyes. Photographs of the woman’s injuries were taken by a Naples officer who provided copies to Huggins.
Gressman is charged with aggravated sexual assault and faces five to 99 years or life in prison if convicted. He is scheduled to appear in court before Tidwell again next month.