Gary man charged with rape loses 3rd bid to cut bail

A Gary man lost his third bid to get his bail cut Thursday.

Robert Shaw, 42, was charged last year with repeatedly stabbing, beating and raping a woman in a Gary motel where he appeared to live.

He faces several felonies including attempted murder.

“What would be the change in circumstances,” Lake Superior Court Judge Gina Jones asked lawyer Lonnie Randolph II, noting another bail reduction was rejected in December.

Shaw can’t afford the bail that was “stacked” with two other cases — battery and domestic battery — totaling nearly $30,000 cash, Randolph said.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Arturo Balcazar said Randolph recently taking over the attempted murder case didn’t count as a qualifying reason to revisit Shaw’s bail.

“I never said that,” Randolph replied, asking Jones to lower Shaw’s bond in the attempted murder case from $20,000 to $10,000, saying they’d agree to adding other court restrictions like an ankle monitor.

Another attorney represents Shaw on his other cases, records show.

Shaw had an “awful” criminal record in other states, many involving the same woman in the attempted murder case, Balcazar said. The allegations in court documents were “incredibly violent.” Shaw was also transient, upping his flight risk, the prosecutor argued.

There was no evidence he was a flight risk, Randolph argued, noting bail can’t be used as “punishment.”

“I hear you,” Jones said. “I understand.”

She denied the appeal, saying the bond was appropriate.

“Unless there’s a change in circumstances, I won’t be reviewing it again,” she said.

A preliminary trial date was scheduled for June 26. A hearing on a DNA swab is set for March 16.

Gary Police were called around noon July 24, 2022 to the Mosley Motel, 6200 Melton Road, in the city’s Miller section. The victim texted her friend for help, who called the police.

By the time officers arrived, she was on an ambulance gurney with a swollen eye and jaw, with dark purple and blue bruises on her face, court records state. She alleged Shaw beat and stabbed her “several times,” the affidavit stated.

Officers arrested Shaw, who answered the motel room door. There was a “strong odor” of cleaning products and what appeared to be blood on the floor, according to court documents.

The woman said she and Shaw were drunk in the room when he accused her of cheating, the affidavit states. She alleged he started punching her in the face until she passed out. When she woke up, she realized he stabbed her in the abdomen and head, records show. The knife blade had bent off and was sticking out of her temple, she told police.

By that time, Shaw was thrusting another knife at her, threatening to kill and “detonate” her, records allege. She was heavily bleeding from her face, head and abdomen while Shaw tried applying Vaseline to control the bleeding, court documents state.

The woman begged to let her call for help, but Shaw continued to thrust a knife toward her, records state. He made her take a shower and clean up as she was “in and out of it” so he could force her to have sex with him, the affidavit alleges.

Shaw forced her to have sex three times, court records state. When he appeared to be sleepy, she managed to text her friend for help.

When medics arrived, Shaw told her to get in the shower and answered the door, telling them they didn’t need help and hadn’t called 911.

The woman despaired at that moment and “thought for sure she was going to die,” she later told police.

When security knocked again, she yelled out for help, denying when Shaw tried to tell them she was attacked by a group of men she owed money earlier in Chicago, mouthing, “He did this,” to EMTs.

Hospital staff told police the woman had a fractured skull, loss of consciousness, stab wound damaging both eye sockets and her nasal cavity, and a stab wound that punctured her bowel, which needed surgery.

Court records show Shaw’s pending domestic battery case involves the same woman.