https://www.masslive.com/news/2024/07/trial-of-worcester-man-accused-of-raping-throwing-girl-off-bridge-will-be-in-2025.html
The trial for a Worcester man accused of raping and throwing a 7-year-old girl from a bridge above Lake Quinsigamond will begin on April 7, 2025, a Worcester Superior Court judge ordered on Wednesday.
Joshua Hubert, 41, was initially charged in district court with kidnapping, then attempted murder in August 2017. He was held on a cash bail set at $1 million, which later increased to $2 million.
Hubert was indicted by a grand jury in January 2018 on two counts of attempted murder and one each of kidnapping and strangulation. He was held on a $50,000 cash bail following his arraignment on Jan. 29, 2018.
At the time he posted bail but his original trial date was postponed from March to October 2020, though it stayed pending due to the COVID-19 pandemic until Dec. 13, 2023, the Associated Press reported.
That day, Hubert was indicted on two counts of aggravated rape with the victim being a child who was tied, bound or gagged during their rape, and at least a five-year age difference.
In 2017, the 7-year-old girl told detectives her friend Josh threw her off a bridge into a lake on Aug. 27 of that year, prosecutor Courtney Sans previously said in Superior Court.
The girl had been asleep on a chair at her grandparents Forestdale Road home following a cookout at the house earlier that day, when officials said Hubert, whod been at the cookout, took her at around 2:30 a.m.
The man and the girls father were longtime friends until they had a falling out, prosecutors previously said.
He stopped at his home on Bernice Street around 3:15 a.m. and told his girlfriend he was going to the store, police said. He later told his girlfriend to delete all of his accounts with Lastpass.com, an encrypted data storage company, following his arrest.
Hubert pulled over and got in the backseat with the child at some point in the drive, prosecutors said.
Worcester Police Detective Dylan Patient wrote that Hubert used both of his hands to strangle the girl, according to a search warrant affidavit obtained by MassLive in 2018.
He strangled her with two hands, and his arm, then got back in the drivers seat and started driving again, Patient wrote.
When asked if she had tried pushing him away, she stated, I tried that but it didnt work.
One of the two new rape charges filed against Hubert on Dec. 13, 2023, includes the victim being a child who was tied, bound or gagged during their rape. Prosecutors have not yet revealed the evidence behind the new charges.
It was before 4 a.m. when Hubert stopped his car on the Interstate 290 overpass at the Worcester-Shrewsbury line, prosecutors previously said.
He threw the 7-year-old, wrapped in a blanket, over the bridge above Lake Quinsigamond, according to prosecutors, police and court records. The lakes average depth is between 21 and 36 feet, with some areas that are up to 90 feet deep.
The victim stated that she fell for a long time and landed in the waters below, Patient wrote. She stated that she began to swim to a building she could see but the blanket she was carrying was getting very heavy, which made it difficult to swim. She then swam to a house and stated that she was able to stand up in the water.
After she swam the near-100 yards to the shore and made it to the home on Lear Street North, the 7-year-old was swept into a towel and warm clothes by Maeve Geary, the woman who opened the door. She asked the girl what had happened and called the police.
The child was taken to the hospital and told Worcester police about what happened from the previous few hours, while police took note of strangulation marks on her neck.
A witness also texted a friend at 4:15 a.m. when they got home and jokingly said they saw someone throw something off a bridge the witness had been on Interstate 290 earlier that night, and said a Saturn was parked on the overpass in the breakdown lane, police said.
The witness was referring to the bridged part of the highway over Lake Quinsigamond, and told police they saw a man walking around the car before it drove off.
He was also suspended from his job at the Fay School in Southborough in August 2017, where hed worked in the schools technology department as a systems support analyst. School officials said he did not have any contact with children.
https://worcesterda.com/hubert-sentenced-to-28-30-years-in-prison-for-2017-strangulation-kidnapping-and-attempted-murder/
43-year-old Joshua Hubert, of Worcester, was sentenced to prison for kidnapping, strangling and attempting to murder a 7-year-old girl whom he threw off of an I-290 bridge over Lake Quinsigamond on August 27, 2017, according to Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early, Jr.
On September 18, 2025, Mr. Hubert was found guilty of two counts of attempted murder, one count of strangulation, and one count of kidnapping a child. He was found not guilty of one count of aggravated rape of a child with force, and one count of aggravated rape of a child with a 5-year age difference.
Mr. Hubert was sentenced to serve two 14-15-year prison sentences for the two attempted murder convictions, to run consecutively, and 4-5 years in prison for his strangulation conviction, to run concurrently with one of the attempted murder sentences. He was also sentenced to 4 years of probation on the kidnapping conviction, to run from and after the prison sentences.
On August 26, 2017, Mr. Hubert was at a cookout with members of the victims family. In the early hours of August 27, he kidnapped the victim, strangled her, and threw her off of the bridge over Lake Quinsigamond. The girl survived the fall, swam to shore, and sought help at a nearby home on the Shrewsbury side of the lake. That set off an investigation by Shrewsbury and Worcester Police, as well as the Mass. State Police Detectives assigned to the Worcester County District Attorneys Office.
I would like to thank Assistant District Attorneys Mark McShera and Emily Meyers, and Victim Witness Advocate Maria Deyette, as well as the Shrewsbury and Worcester Police Departments, for their excellent work on this case, Mr. Early said.
Worcester Police Chief Paul Saucier said, I respect the Judges decision in sentencing. This is a horrific case, and the Worcester Police Department is hopeful that it will provide closure to the courageous victim and her family.
Shrewsbury Police Chief Kevin Anderson said, Todays sentencing brings a measure of justice for the victim and their family after an unimaginably traumatic event. While no outcome can erase the pain caused, we hope this decision reinforces our communitys commitment to safety and accountability. Our officers remain dedicated to protecting all members of our community and supporting those affected by violent acts.
Seems a little low imo.