Wheeling teen gets 3 more years in jail

A Wheeling teenager was sentenced Monday to another three years in the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice for the criminal sexual assault of a 4-year-old last April.

Benigo Sanchez, 18, has already been in jail since April 2009 and pleaded guilty to the charges Nov. 2.

On Monday, Cook County Circuit Court Judge John Scotillo sentenced Sanchez to stay in the juvenile detention facility for three more years, or until his 21st birthday, and ordered him to register as a juvenile sex offender.

Because the crime is a Class X felony, which carries a sentence of 6 to 30 years in jail, the law required Sanchez to be tried as an adult. However, because exams showed he has learning disabilities, Scotillo sentenced him to a lesser sentence as a juvenile, under the Juvenile Court Act.