By Kathy Laird
Adam W. Gunter of Galion made his initial appearance before Crawford County Common Pleas Court Judge Sean Leuthold on Tuesday to answer for charges of rape against a four-month-old victim.
Court-appointed attorney Adam Stone represents Gunter. Stone was not present in the courtroom today, but his assistant attorney Sara Walker represented Gunter in his appeal for expert evaluation.
Prosecutor Matt Crall outlined the allegation against Gunter. Noting that the allegations were, “even difficult to read much less speak,” Crall explained the alleged events of Dec. 17.
Gunter was left in charge of the infant by his mother who was at the time Gunter’s guardian. There were two other men in the home, but both were upstairs at the time of the incident.
When the child’s mother and Gunter’s mother returned to the residence, they noticed the child bleeding from the nose and mouth as well as bruising and marks on the child’s neck. There was also unusual bruising on the child’s backside.
The child was taken to Galion Community Hospital and later transferred to Columbus Children’s Hospital with injuries consistent with sexual assault.
Asking to review the emergency room report for the purpose of bail, Leuthold went into chambers and returned a short time later.
“What we have here is bleeding from the nose, bleeding from the mouth, marks around the baby’s neck, unusual bruising at the rear end and a torn lingual frenulum,” Leuthold said.
The lingual frenulum is the thin strip of tissue that runs vertically from the floor of the mouth to the undersurface of the tongue. Field tests originally indicated the presence of a sexually transmitted disease, but upon further testing it was determined that neither the baby nor Gunter had any sexually transmitted diseases.
When arguing bond, Ms. Walker noted that her client had no felony history, that others had access to the victim and that Gunter suffered from mental illness. She asked the court for permission to have Gunter evaluated by an expert.
Leuthold agreed to allow an additional $2,500 for the expert witness fee, but noted that he also has ordered a competency exam to be completed on Gunter.
“Are you going for a guilty by reason of insanity defense here?” Leuthold asked.
Walker indicated that they are.
Crall argued for bond to remain at $750,000. He noted that although there were two other men in the house they were both upstairs.
“One of the men doesn’t like to be around children, so he was in his bedroom and the other was playing video games upstairs in the home,” Crall said. “But most importantly, when questions by Galion Police, Gunter admitted to the rape.”
With that, Leuthold raised the bond to $1 million.