DARLINGTON — An Argyle 18-year-old faces charges in Lafayette County Circuit Court of stealing a family member’s car and then threatening those who told police about the theft.
Kyle Lawrence Gilbertson is charged with felony bail jumping and a misdemeanor charge of taking and driving a vehicle without consent. In a related case, he faces three Class G felony charges of intimidating a witness, three counts of felony bail jumping and two misdemeanor charges of unlawful use of a computer with intent to threaten or harm.
Gilbertson also faces previously filed charges related to allegations that he showed high school students nude pictures of underage girls on his phone, punched two Monroe 16-year-olds and threatened to “shoot the school up” on graduation day, referring to Monroe High School.
According to court records:
On Sept. 20, Gilbertson took a family member’s 2004 Buick LeSabre without permission and used it to pick up two students at Argyle High School and give them rides home. One of the students told police he bragged about having a “new whip.”
Video from the school shows the vehicle at the school. Gilbertson does not have a driver’s license.
Another family member, not the victim, told police he was trying to be a mentor to Gilbertson and asked police not to “ruin a kid’s future by charging him with a theft.”
“I will straighten him out,” he wrote in a text to Argyle Chief of Police Hayley Saalsaa. “Do me a favor.”
On Oct. 20, the students contacted police to report that Gilbertson had been threatening them with statements like “snitches get stitches” and “now you are going to get stitches,” along with obscenity-laced threats to members of their families.
At a recent court hearing for Gilbertson, District Attorney Jenna Gill said she previously gave him “the benefit of the doubt” in recommending bond conditions. Now she supports bond conditions prohibiting contact with anyone younger than 18, not just his alleged victims.
She also requested he not be allowed on or near any school premises because she has received several phone calls from citizens, teachers, principals and school members about Gilbertson frequently “hanging around school parking lots” and “hanging out with children under the age of 15.”
“I have a grave concern for what his intentions are and what is going on here,” Gill said. She said she also received a complaint that Gilbertson solicited sex with a 14-year-old in Monroe. The case is still pending in her office.
Gilbertson’s attorney, Adam Witt, agreed that some bond conditions would be reasonable but objected to no contact with anyone under the age of 18.
“Mr. Gilbertson just turned 18 himself. Virtually all the people that he knows are around that age and I think that will cut him off unduly from larger society,” Witt said.
Witt also argued for a signature bond, not cash bond.
“Mr. Gilbertson doesn’t have any money and will not be able to post any cash bond at this point. Keeping him in jail until the resolution of this matter would simply be unreasonable. We do believe that proper bond conditions can be fashioned to protect the public and ensure Mr. Gilbertson appears in court,” he said.
Judge Duane Jorgenson said Gilbertson’s increasing number of felony charges was concerning, as was Gilbertson’s apparent disregard for court orders. Jorgenson imposed a $1,000 cash bond in the two new cases and ordered Gilbertson to have no contact with anyone under the age of 18, except family members and indirect contact, and to stay 100 yards away from any school or school event.