Jury convicts man of sexually abusing strangers in St. Louis Hills | State

ST. LOUIS – A St. Louis jury on Thursday convicted a man of sexually abusing two boys in separate incidents in the city’s St. Louis Hills neighborhood.

After about three hours of deliberation, Osmani Haji Gul was found guilty of two counts of felonies and one misdemeanor. He was acquitted of one count of felonies and one misdemeanor.

During the three-day trial, prosecutors presented evidence including testimony from three boys who said they were attacked, DNA test results including semen samples, and a recording of Gul being questioned by police in which he said: “I am guilty. I am 100 percent the perpetrator.”

Prosecutor Jeremy Crowley said in his closing argument that surveillance videos from the area were also revealing: One clip showed Gul stopping and listening while the sounds of children playing could be heard in the background.

“He viewed this as a hunting ground for vulnerable children,” Crowley said. “He was looking for his next victim.”

According to prosecutors, Gul stalked the Francis Park area for several months beginning in fall 2022, rubbing his body against a 6-year-old boy in a park restroom before the boy escaped.

Then, in July 2023, he put a 12-year-old boy in a headlock in Francis Park. The boy escaped.

But about a week later, Haji Gul grabbed a 6-year-old boy from his bicycle, dragged him behind a dumpster near a house that was being renovated, and sexually assaulted him. Gul’s DNA was found on a piece of plywood that police seized from behind the house.

All three children recognized Gul from photographs. Two remembered that he spoke a language they did not understand.

Gul watched the trial alongside an interpreter who spoke Pashto, a language spoken in Afghanistan, where Gul lived before immigrating to the United States.

Gul’s attorney, Ellsworth Ware, argued that his client did not sexually abuse any of the boys and that the assaults were not related. Ware said that when Gul admitted his guilt to police, he meant that he was guilty of touching one of the children on the back.

“This is not sodomy,” he said. “This is not molestation. This is not even assault.”

The verdict against Gul will be announced at a later date.