Aurora man guilty of sisters' molestation
A former Aurora man faces a life sentence for molesting two young sisters, who testified at his jury trial in Kane County this week, authorities said Wednesday.
Chester A. McKinney, 38, was convicted of five counts of predatory criminal sexual assault. A jury deliberated for about 2½ hours Wednesday before reaching its verdict.
Prosecutors said the sisters were sexually abused several times between 2001 and 2002 in Aurora, when McKinney and their mother dated and lived together.
The trial started Monday and the girls were among the investigators and counselors who testified against McKinney in graphic detail.
Christine Bayer, a prosecutor with the county's child advocacy center, said in her closing arguments McKinney "stole the innocence" of the girls, age 3 and 5 at the time of the abuse.
The jurors also convicted McKinney of nine aggravated criminal sexual abuse counts. He faces a mandatory sentence of natural life in prison.
McKinney, whose last address was in Joliet, is set to be sentenced May 9 by Judge Grant Wegner.
He has been in the county jail on $1.5 million bond since his arrest March 17, 2005.