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Des Moines County jury faced with mistrial in sex abuse case

The Hawk Eye - 4/15/2018

April 15--After more than eight hours of deliberation, a Des Moines County jury told District Judge Mary Ann Brown Friday they were deadlocked and could not reach a verdict in a trial for a 37-year-old man accused of molesting a child beginning when she was 12 years old.

Eric Hillman, 37, 1318 N. Ninth St., showed no emotion when Brown declared a mistrial late Friday afternoon.

The seven-woman, five-man jury deliberated more than eight hours over two days before telling Brown they were deadlocked.

"We are at a standstill and feel we can't move forward at this point," according to a note the jury sent to Brown announcing the deadlock.

According to the jury foreman's note they were deadlocked at 11 guilty to one not guilty on the first sex abuse charge and nine for guilty and three for not guilty on the second abuse charge.

After receiving the note, Brown called the jury back into the courtroom and urged them to try and reach a verdict. About an hour later, the jury sent out a second note saying they tried, but could not reach a unanimous decision.

Had Hillman been convicted of the charges, two counts of third-degree sexual abuse, he faced up to 20 years in prison on the class C felonies. He would also have had to register as a sex offender the remainder of his life.

He remains free on a $20,000 cash bond he posted a few weeks after being charged with assaulting the child.

Todd Chelf, the assistant Des Moines County attorney who prosecuted the case, said late Friday he did not know if he would seek to retry Hillman on the charges.

"We are very appreciative of the hard work this jury did on this case," Chelf said. "We intend to have a conversation with law enforcement and our witnesses as to how to proceed in this matter."

Hillman was called to the witness stand during the two-day trial by his public defender, James Beres. While on the witness stand, he repeatedly denied the accusation of the child, who he met through a member of her family.

It was the second time Hillman has faced sex abuse charges in Des Moines County.

According to court records, Hillman was charged in October 2003 with third-degree sexual assault involving a teenage girl, who became pregnant. The charges against him were dismissed a month later after the girl left the area and refused to cooperate with prosecutors.

In trial this week, Hillman was accused of molesting the girl beginning when she was 12 years old. She testified Thursday and told the jury she had been assaulted by Hillman between "12 and 15 times" during two different time frames: the first assaults occurred between March 2012 and 2013 when she was 12 years old and again between 2015 and 2016 when she was 15 years old.

Burlington police became aware of the alleged assaults after they were notified by an official with the Scott County Department of Human Services in October 2016, who told them their office had been contacted by a teenage girl stating she had been molested by a Burlington man.

"A forensic interview was conducted with the girl by the Child Protection Response Team in Davenport," court records state.

Following the forensic interview, Burlington detectives contacted Hillman asking him to come to the Burlington Police Department for an interview. Hillman agreed to a meeting at the police department, but never appeared.

"Detectives made numerous attempts to contact him, however he refused to return telephone calls," court records state. "He finally returned a telephone call after detectives attempted to contact Hillman, where he worked for a car dealership in Mount Pleasant.

"In speaking with Hillman, the detective asked why he had not shown up for his interview and Hillman suggested he knew what the case was pertaining to and stated he would contact his attorney, then call police back with a date and time to conduct the interview ... However, he refused to return future telephone calls from the detective and never scheduled a time for an interview."

Detectives said Hillman has been "uncooperative during the entire investigation."

Hillman was arrested last April in the 1300 block of North 9th Street in Burlington.

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(c)2018 The Hawk Eye (Burlington, Iowa)

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