Trial delayed in Kingman man's sexual torture case

KINGMAN - A new attorney and a new defense investigator may have further delayed the case of a Kingman man charged with 26 felonies stemming from the sexual torture of a woman and her son.

Jerry Gilligan, 70, is charged with 10 counts of sexual conduct with a minor under the age of 12, six counts of aggravated assault by domestic violence, seven counts of sexual exploitation of a minor by domestic violence, two counts of kidnapping and one count of administration of a dangerous drug to another person.

Gilligan's new attorney, Sandra Carr, said Monday that her investigator had retired and she may request funds to hire a new investigator, essentially re-starting the defense's investigation.

Superior Court Commissioner Billy Sipe Jr. set Gilligan's next status hearing for Feb. 12.

At an April hearing, prosecutors offered a plea agreement stipulating a 30-year prison sentence but Gilligan rejected that plea agreement. Gilligan, confined to a wheelchair, is being held in county jail without bond.

Gilligan was arrested Sept. 17, 2016, after his wife was taken to a Kingman hospital complaining about battery acid in her eye. The wife said that Gilligan tied up her and her 11-year-old son and sexually tortured them during the previous four days, according to Kingman police.

Gilligan allegedly poured battery acid into the woman's eyes, taped the victims' mouths shut and hit them with a wooden stick. He also allegedly taped their hands and feet and shaved their heads, as well as forcing them to perform sexual acts on him and on each other as he took pictures and recorded them.

Evidence discovered at the home corroborated the victim's story. Police said they believed that Gilligan had sexually abused and assaulted the victims during a two-year period. The boy was released to the custody of his mother.

Gilligan was released from state prison in October 2014 after serving 25 years for first-degree murder, burglary, arson and theft out of Pima County. He had been sentenced to life in prison. He was arrested at a Georgia home in February 1988 and brought back to Arizona on a warrant for the murder of his stepfather Walter Bopp at one of Bopp's two health food stores in Tucson.

Bopp, 78, was found burned and beaten in December 1980 and lived for about a month before he eventually died. He refused to name his attackers. Two other men pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and were sentenced in 1983.