TACOMA — The child rape suspect allowed to view porn in the Pierce County jail had a murder suspect in the same private viewing room with him.
Marc Gilbert claims they weren’t watching any of the videos but prosecutors are furious.
The case stands out because Gilbert is acting in own defense, and therefore has the legal right to view the evidence against him — including porn. By order of the judge, he can only view that material in a private jail interview room and only when his private investigator is present.
But the jail reports a serious breach of that condition. They recently found murder suspect Antwane Goolsby in the viewing room with Gilbert and his investigator.
“It was shocking to me that this was going on,” said deputy prosecutor Pat Hammond.
But Gilbert claims they weren’t watching the porn — they were discussing their cases because Goolsby too is representing himself and using the same private investigator.
“Nothing was discussed that was at all privileged, nothing was discussed that was about any details of our case and certainly nothing was seen by anybody regarding the computer,” Gilbert said.
Gilbert promised judge Ronald Culpepper it wouldn’t happen again.
And he gave the letter to the judge we first told you about last Friday — a letter Gilbert wrote to the prosecutor where he claims the case against him is being blown out of proportion — especially the part where he’s allowed to view pornography in jail.
“Which portrayed me that I had unlimited access to child porn at the jail,” Gilbert said. “It didn’t disclose the fact this was a stipulated agreement.”
In the letter, Gilbert points out he’s already been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for child porn crimes — why go through another trial and force the alleged victims to come to court?
Prosecutors say they’re moving ahead with the trial, but the current trial date of Sept. 19 is now in doubt because Gilbert told the judge Monday he likely won’t be ready by that date.
