BUCYRUS—Joshua Benedict, 40, currently housed at the Crawford County Jail, wants a new trial.
Benedict was found guilty of two counts of rape of a child under 14. (the victim was nine at the time of the assault), one count of gross imposition and over 80 counts of pandering sexually explicit material involving a minor.
Benedict was found guilty on April 30 after a jury deliberation of less than three hours. Visiting Judge Howard Hall ordered a condensed version of a pre-sentence investigation and set sentencing for June 23 at 9:30 AM in the Crawford County Common Pleas Court.
In the motion, Benedict’s attorney, Adam Stone, said he got a call from the victim’s grandfather two days after the guilty verdict saying that he had purchased the tablet for use with his drone. When the drone broke, he sent the tablet to his granddaughters. Furthermore, he said he has proof that the tablet was purchased in 2016, a full year after the rapes were committed.
Part of Stone’s motion contends that the new evidence will provide proof that either members of the victim’s home or the granddaughters downloaded the material from a pornography website and that the victim took the pictures of herself.
The prosecutor’s office plans to respond to the motion quickly. Visiting Judge Howard Hall will set a day to hear the motion for a new trial.
Crawford County Now will continue to follow all the developments on this story.