college football

LOWELL — Rashawn Settles starred as a football and basketball player at Lowell High School and was the 2019 Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference Defensive Rookie of the Year while playing football at Westfield State.

But on July 31, the 22-year-old Lowell man’s life took a turn for the worse. On Monday, he was arraigned at Lowell District Court for the murder of a family member, 64-year-old Linda Gilbert.

At Settles’ brief hearing before Judge Daniel Crane, during which he nodded but did not speak, Settles was charged in the slaying of his grandaunt in the Highlands home they shared.

In addition to murder, Settles, of 69 Loring St., is also charged with unarmed burglary of his grandfather’s home the same night.

Settles appeared in the enclosed holding area of the court, with his hands shackled behind his back, and guarded by two officers.

Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Daniel Harren requested the defendant be held without bail pending a probable cause hearing set for Sept. 13.

According to an affidavit by State Police Trooper Sean Deady included in court documents, Lowell Police were first called to Rashawn Settles’ grandfather’s home on Tyler Park on July 11 for a mental health issue. When officers arrived, Settles was “in a delusional state,” and “was digging through potted plants and destroying household items while appearing to look for something unknown,” Deady’s affidavit states.

Settles “appeared nonverbal and continued to move around the apartment as if he were alone,” and “began throwing items outside of the apartment and over a second story balcony,” the document states.

When officers tried to place Settles in handcuffs, “he violently struggled” against them until he was eventually placed in an ambulance, the affidavit states. He was then civilly committed for about two weeks, first at Lowell General Hospital’s Saints Campus and then at a mental health unit at Tufts Medical Center. Settles’ commitment was under Section 12, which allows for a person to be brought against his or her will to a hospital for evaluation.

After his return from the hospital — a week before the murder — Settles went to live with family at 69 Loring St., staying on the first floor with his grandmother and Gilbert, who were sisters, according to the affidavit.

The night of July 31, a couple other family members brought Settles to play basketball at a park off of Chelmsford Street, where he “became nonverbal and walked away from the basketball court,” the affidavit states. The family lost track of him, and after an hours-long search, his mother reported him missing to Lowell Police.

At some point after that call, according to the affidavit, Settles returned to the shared family home on Loring Street, and allegedly attacked Gilbert in her first-floor apartment, stabbing her in the neck three times.

Deady’s affidavit continues that another family member who lives on the third floor heard “a loud noise from downstairs” and went down to investigate. That’s when she found Gilbert “laying on the floor with blood surrounding her,” and called 911 at roughly 11:15 p.m.

Settles had already fled the house, according to the affidavit. A short time later, and after wandering the streets, much of which was caught on various surveillance cameras and devices, Settles entered the home of his grandfather, less than a mile from Loring Street.

The affidavit states that his grandfather “woke up and immediately observed Rashawn sitting on the couch in the living room and staring at him silently. Given their recent history and Rashawn’s mental health issues,” the document states, he yelled at Settles to leave his apartment.

Detective Nathan Bowler, of the Lowell Police Department, responded to the scene and found Settles “sitting on a large boulder in the back left corner of Tyler Park. Rashawn did not speak and appeared catatonic.”

Settles was taken into custody and transported to Lowell General’s Saints Campus, where he remained civilly committed up until his arraignment.

According to the affidavit, video surveillance gathered by police showed Settles traveled to Loring Street just before Gilbert’s murder and fled immediately following.

“Further, the surveillance video shows that Rashawn took an indirect route, avoiding main roads when he fled from Loring Street to (his grandfather’s) apartment at Tyler Park,” Deady wrote. “On that route, surveillance video shows Rashawn changing clothes in an attempt to change his appearance.”

Settles allegedly broke into his grandfather’s home, showered to remove the blood from his body and disposed of the bloody clothes in the dumpster behind the apartment. According to the affidavit, investigators recovered a pair of sneakers with blood stains from the apartment, as well as a paper bag from the dumpster that contained blood-stained clothing consistent with what Settles had been seen wearing before the murder, along with mail with his name.

The affidavit states Settles’ hands tested positive for blood, and investigators also found “the presence of blood” on the sink handles and inside the sink and shower drains at his grandfather’s home.

During the murder investigation on Aug. 1, State Police executed external and internal search warrants at 69 Loring St., and no knife believed to be the murder weapon was recovered during the search, according to the affidavit.

Search warrants were also executed at the adjacent residence of 67 Loring St., where Rashawn Settles’ older brother, Diquane Settles, lived in a third-floor apartment in the duplex.

During the search of 67 Loring St., police did not find any evidence related to the murder, but recovered a firearm and narcotics.

Diquane Settles, 26, was arraigned in the same courtroom as his younger brother Monday, and faces charges of trafficking 200 grams or more of cocaine, possession of a firearm, possession of a firearm without a proper firearm identification card and possession of ammunition without a proper identification card.

His bail was set at $20,000 cash bond, and the judge ordered him fitted with a GPS tracking device and restricted his travel from Lowell to Hudson to help care for his 3-year-old son.

Diquane Settles is scheduled to be released pending his family making bail, with a probable cause hearing set for Sept. 9.

The family missed Diquane Settles’ arraignment as they were attending private services for Gilbert in Chelmsford, but they arrived in time to hear the charges brought against Rashawn Settles. Harren asked a reporter not to speak with the family, saying they requested privacy.

Editor’s Note: Reporter Melanie Gilbert and murder victim Linda Gilbert are of no relation.