Primate News

BEAUMONT, TEXAS - Beaumont resident Eric J. Gipson Sr., 40, was indicted Aug. 21 by a Jefferson County grand jury on four felony sex charges stemming from crimes reported from 2018 through 2024. Gipson’s indictment was not revealed with the normal grand jury report because, although Gibson was identified as a suspect in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2024, he was never arrested for the alleged violent criminal activities.

According to Beaumont Police Department (BPD) filings, Gipson was not arrested until after an indictment in what they described as a serial sexual assault investigation that lingered for approximately seven years.

Gipson is now charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault (first-degree felonies) and two counts of sexual assault (second-degree felonies). As of press time, Gipson was being held at the Jefferson County Correctional Facility in lieu of a total $1.5 million in bonds.

According to probable cause affidavits for Gipson’s arrest, a female victim reported to Beaumont PD that she had been sexually assaulted Sept. 26, 2024. She stated that, while she was walking near Porky’s Gas Station between 1 and 2 a.m., she was approached from behind by a man with a knife. She reported that the man forced her behind the Church of Philadelphia on Calder Avenue and sexually assaulted her while holding a knife against her throat. She described the suspect’s cross tattoo with a vine wrapped around it on the side of his neck. The victim then received a SANE exam and DNA evidence was collected, although at the time of the report officers noted in the file that the victim had reported multiple sexual assaults around this time frame.

According to BPD Special Crimes Unit Detective Brandon Hill, in January 2025, he received an email from Texas DPS informing him that a search of the CODIS database related the DNA profiles to four investigations. Hill reviewed the cases and learned of a possible suspect that “had not been positively identified by any of the victims.” Based on this information, a warrant was approved to allow Hill to collect DNA from Gipson on May 8. The Houston DPS crime lab reported that testing positively linked Gipson to all four crimes.

The first case linked to the Beaumont suspect dated to March 7, 2018, when a female victim reportedly accepted a ride from the suspect as she was walking in the area of Goliad around 3 a.m. She told police he took her to an apartment and sexually assaulted her and, although she attempted to fight him off, she was unable to. The victim provided a description of the suspect and a license plate of the vehicle he was driving at the time. Police traced the license plate back to a female owner who said Gipson had borrowed the vehicle. The victim was unable to positively identify Gipson in a lineup and BPD does not report that Gipson’s DNA was taken at this time.

The second assault was reported to have occurred June 6, 2019, when a female victim stated she was walking near Magnolia when a man offered her a ride, offered to pay for sex and she declined his offer.

The victim said the suspect passed the location he was supposed to be dropping her off at and eventually stopped in a wooded area east of Pine Street where he sexually assaulted her and left her in the woods. DNA evidence was collected from the victim in this case, who said she was delayed in reporting because the assault caused enough trauma that she needed to check into a mental health facility.

March 23, 2020, another female victim reported to police that, while she was walking near MLK and Liberty around 3:40 a.m., she accepted a ride home from a man who began driving in the opposite direction of her residence. She stated that they ended up on a dead-end street off Pine Street, where her assailant ordered her out of the vehicle, threatened to stab her, sexually assaulted her and left her lying on the ground. She was able to describe the man and his vehicle and that she recognized him as a Jack in the Box employee from the Gulf and Interstate 10 location and that she believed that she could identify the actor if she saw him again.

Officers located the suspect vehicle in the Jack in the Box parking lot and identified the owner as Gipson at the time. Officers noted in their follow up investigation that Gipson matched the physical description given by the victim. Officers told Gipson they were investigating a sexual assault, at which point he stated he paid the victim $15 to have sex with him. Within the probable cause affidavit, BPD does not report that Gipson was part of a lineup or that his DNA was taken at this time.

In the press release following Gipson’s arrest, officers describe the arrest as a result of “exceptional teamwork between Beaumont Police Special Crimes detectives, the Texas Rangers Division, and SAU Officers” and stated that, “The Beaumont Police Department is proud of the dedication, persistence, and cooperation shown by our Special Crimes Unit, SAU officers, and the Texas Rangers."

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