BUCYRUS, OH (CRAWFORD COUNTY NOW)—After being indicted by the Crawford County Grand Jury, a Bucyrus man was arraigned from the Crawford County Jail.

David Shepherd is facing nine counts of rape involving two victims aged eight and nine. Shepherd is accused of the systematic rape of the young victims.

The alleged acts included oral sex. The abuse is believed to have started in December 2022 when Shepherd and the children were living with their maternal grandmother in Mansfield. However, it escalated when they moved to Bucyrus, and Shepherd was alone with them. He is currently unemployed.

The mother of the children, who is currently in prison, informed the Bucyrus Police Department about Shepherd’s admission of sexually abusing the children through computer text messages.
The mother made a recorded call to Shepherd from the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, and the recorded conversation confirmed the confession. Prosecutors have subpoenaed these calls from the prison.

Based on this information, the police obtained a search warrant for Shepherd’s residence on South Sandusky Street. When they entered the home using a battering ram after Shepherd refused to answer the door, they found Shepherd coming up the basement stairs. He was read his Miranda rights and taken to the kitchen for questioning. During the interrogation, he confessed to sexually abusing both children, including digital and oral penetration. He also admitted to attempting vaginal and anal penetration on the nine-year-old.

During the arraignment in the Crawford County Common Pleas Court, Judge Sean Leuthold informed Shepherd that each of the nine counts carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Shepherd requested attorney Tom Nicholson to defend him, and Judge Leuthold granted the request.

Considering the gravity of the charges, Judge Leuthold set what he called one of his highest bonds ever. He emphasized the risk posed to any juvenile in Shepherd’s vicinity and ordered a million-dollar bond for each count, totaling 9 million dollars in bond.
Shepherd was also ordered to have no contact, directly or indirectly, with the victims or any other juveniles.

A pretrial date will be scheduled shortly. Crawford County Now will continue to provide coverage of this ongoing news.