A convicted murderer with a history of stalking was sentenced to 15 months in prison for harassing a 15-year-old girl in Section R

This is a disturbing report of the recidivism of a repeatedly convicted violent criminal: in late March, a 15-year-old student at Matanzas High School told the school's school resource officer that a man in his forties or fifties had approached her, then befriended her, then stalked her at her R-Section bus stop on Ryan Drive in Palm Coast, and had even physically assaulted her once. She had photos and a video.

The man was identified as Daniel Hilbert, 53, of 3 Rybell Place, a block from the bus stop. In 1986, he was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He escaped a few years later, was captured and sentenced to two more years. He left prison in 2011. Five years later, he was served with a restraining order for stalking another 15-year-old girl at his bus stop.

On Monday, Hilbert pleaded guilty to aggravated stalking and child abuse. He was sentenced to one year and three months in state prison, which he will have to serve day by day, making him ineligible for early release, followed by three years and nine months of probation.

His record carried a possible 19.5-month prison sentence. There are “significant conditions” to his probation, Circuit Judge Terence Perkins said in handing down the sentence.

“While this is not a sex offense per se, I think it would be appropriate to read Jimmy Rice's provisions,” Assistant District Attorney Melissa Clark, who negotiated the deal, told the court of advocacy. The Jimmy Rice Act, signed into law in 1999, allows the state to impose restrictions on sex offenders and predators, including imprisonment, beyond the terms of a sentence if the court deems it appropriate.

The child's mother attended the hearing via Zoom. “I spoke to the lawyer and I think we both agreed on the sentence,” she told the court, referring to Clark. “That seems enough. »

The victim was not present in court. According to his account to authorities, Hilbert had approached him daily on the bus since early March. At first he chattered. Then he started walking the girl home or riding his motorcycle alongside her. In one case, he put her in his Kia Telluride (another man was also in the car. There was no physical contact.)

Hilbert then began appearing around her friend's house, around her own house, and as she and her friend walked around the neighborhood. He would try to get her to leave the group of students at the bus stop to talk to her. She would take alternate routes home to avoid him. He would find her anyway and try to strike up a conversation. He became flirtatious. One afternoon, as she entered her home, he asked if he could kiss her. She pushed him away.

He grabbed her thigh with one hand, the back of her head with the other, and forced himself on her, “kissing” her on the mouth. It was just before spring break.

After spring break. he began talking openly about his attraction to her, making comments about her clothes and physical appearance, in one case pulling on the elastic on her clothes. He took out his phone and put his number on it. The harassment continued until Hilbert's arrest on March 28. He told deputies his girlfriend had a 17-year-old child who attended Matanzas High School and that he often walked to the school bus because he had a child who was getting on and off. at this stop. He denied being inappropriate or physical with the girl, or taking her phone, or even knowing her name, although other students interviewed told police they heard him shout the girl's name to attract his attention.

The harassment is also similar to how he harassed a girl in 2016, according to descriptions provided by the girl’s father when the family sought the injunction against him. And then, the victim lived next door. Then, Hilbert also tried to entice the girl into his car, asked for her phone number, asked for a “hug” at her doorstep.

“I'm afraid for my [family’s] “I am safe with a sick person like him living next to me,” the girl’s father wrote to the court at the time, asking for protection.

On Monday, conditions imposed by Perkins once Hilbert is released include a ban on unsupervised contact with minors, a ban on visiting any place where children congregate, including parks, amusement parks or daycares , without permission from his probation officer, a ban on wearing any sort of Christmas or Halloween costume, mandatory sex offender treatment and annual polygraphs at his expense.