Judge Upholds Sentence For Convicted Waukegan Rapist
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A defense attorney tried unsuccessfully Thursday to convince a Lake County judge to reduce the sentence given to a Zion man convicted of sexually assaulting an intoxicated woman at a Waukegan party last December.
In August, a jury found Christopher Colin, 24, guilty on one count of criminal sexual assault, a Class 1 felony that carries a sentencing range of four to 15 years in prison. The charges alleged the victim was unable to consent to the act.
Colin was later sentenced to eight and a half years in prison by Judge Daniel Shanes.
On Thursday, attorney Robert Ritacca asked Shanes to use his judicial discretion to reduce the sentence, noting that there was no DNA evidence against Colin in the case.
Shanes, however, stood by his original sentence. Ritacca said Colin's conviction will be appealed.
According to prosecutors and state witnesses, Colin was discovered having sex with the 20-year-old victim in the bathroom of a Waukegan apartment where a military deployment goodbye party was being held.
Three state witnesses testified in the trial that they had seen Colin having sex with the woman over a toilet in the bathroom after they had seen her intoxicated and being carried into the room by Colin. They said he had closed and locked the door, and they broke into the bathroom out of concern for her.
In closing arguments to the jury, Assistant State's Attorney Victor O'Block said that while the victim had in the past spurned romantic overtures from Colin, he used her impaired condition at the party as an opportunity to rape her.
Ritacca told the jury in his closing argument that scientific testing in the case showed that Colin's DNA "was excluded" from samples taken from the alleged victim and said "there was no sex."
The victim said she had been drinking and remembered being in the bathroom with Colin, but that she didn't know how she got there. She said she remembered Colin being behind her that she knew he was having sex with her because she felt pain. She also testified she had felt sick and weak, and was not capable of saying no or physically stopping the act.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
