To make the case that much more shocking: The victim was pregnant at the time of the attack. Get details and see the complete affidavit below.
According to the report, the victim (whose name we're not using here at the request of the U.S. Attorney's Office) told investigators that she and Gibson had been married for four years at the time of its March filing, and over that span, she sustained a terrible number of injuries.
Her count? She "suffered a broken jaw, a broken arm, been whipped with objects, been struck in the head, choked, and beaten unconscious on multiple occasions."
As you might expect, many of these ailments required medical treatment. But she didn't inform law enforcement of the punishment she'd been receiving until late March at Fort Carson, where she lived with Gibson and their one-year-old daughter.Over that month, the victim said Mitchell had regularly whipped her with a coaxial cable, which he sometimes made her retrieve for him prior to using it in assaults.
But he allegedly took his horrific treatment a step further on March 22. He's said to have struck her with the cable in the buttocks, chest and groin area, as well as choking her until she blacked out.
She didn't gradually wake up. Rather, she was jolted into consciousness when Gibson reportedly poured boiling water on her stomach, groin, genitals and leg.
At that point, the victim discovered that while she had been out, he had urinated on her as well as bitten her on the neck and left ear.
These offenses were a prelude to what happened on March 25.
Around 8:30 p.m., Gibson allegedly began choking his wife and threw her to the ground. She reacted by rushing to the door and screaming for help. He allegedly squelched her cries by choking her until she lost consciousness again.
This time, Gibson apparently eschewed boiling water as a way to wake his wife, choosing instead to repeatedly kick her -- and when she finally began coming around again, she says she realized he was holding a steak knife to her throat.
Continue for more about the charges against Mitchell Gibson, including the criminal complaint. The victim began begging Gibson to stop, and he did so. But when she stepped out for a few minutes, he allegedly called her cell phone and accused her of being selfish for leaving him to take care of their child -- and for that, he would make her pay by hurting the child.How? He said he was going to cut off his daughter's fingertips.
The victim took this threat seriously, especially since she could hear the baby screaming in the background. She immediately called 911.
By the time officers got to the family's home, both Gibson and the baby were gone. However, Gibson subsequently dialed his wife's cell number again, around the time she was being examined by medical personnel; her facial wounds were so severe that they could be seen by officers from thirty feet away. After an officer got on the line and told Gibson to return with the child, he did so.
Gibson has now been indicted by a federal grand jury on six assault counts that could put him away for ten years -- a sentence that may seem insufficient given the litany of brutality found in the criminal complaint.
"The allegations of the conduct in this case are heinous and unacceptable," says Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, adding, "As you can see by the references in the court documents, this is an important case to prosecute on behalf of the victims."
No photos of Mitchell Gibson have been released at this writing. Here's the criminal complaint.
Send your story tips to the author, Michael Roberts.
More from our Colorado Crimes archive circa January 29: "Aaron Lucas blamed sex assaults on identical twin Brian, just busted on same charges."
