Man sentenced to 85-year prison term in Aurora rape

For the rest of her life, an Aurora woman who survived being abducted, raped and strangled said she will look over her shoulder in fear.

And for the rest of his life, Cedric T. Flax will remain behind bars for committing what a prosecutor described as "a complete violation of every part of her being."

Flax, 20, was sentenced Wednesday to 85 years in prison for a brutal Dec. 9, 2008 crime in which he abducted a woman from an Aurora gas station and subjected her to six hours of mental and physical torture.

DuPage Circuit Judge Kathryn Creswell meted out the harsh punishment after citing Flax's violent history, dating back to age 10. He faced 30 to 120 years in prison. Flax must serve 85 percent of the sentence before he is eligible for parole.

"Basically, he just does what he wants and takes what he wants, having no respect for the law," Creswell said. "There's no doubt in my mind if this defendant is ever released from custody, he will commit another crime and prey upon others."

The victim, a 26-year-old married mother, urged Creswell to impose a harsh sentence Feb. 3 at the start of Flax's sentencing hearing.

"The defendant is heartless for doing what he did," she said. "I feel that if he was free and had a chance to do it again, he would do it without a doubt. He had no remorse when he did this to me.

"Therefore, I have none for him."

A DuPage County jury convicted Flax Oct. 28 after two hours of deliberations. Members rejected his claim that the sexual contact was consensual.

Flax maintains his innocence and insists he is not a bad person, but he acknowledged his past crimes and pledged to turn around his life if given the chance. Many of his relatives and friends wrote supportive letters to the judge. Flax spoke directly to his tearful mother, seated feet away, who raised five children on her own.

"Mom, I want you to know I love you. If you're OK, I'm OK, " he said. "Ain't nothing going to happen to me. I'll be OK. I'm prepared to do this."

During his trial last year, prosecutors played a video from an Aurora gas station that showed a man skulking around the woman's idling truck after she went inside to buy cigarettes before beginning her late-night shift at a nursing home. The man is seen climbing into the back seat before the woman returns to her truck.

The woman said Flax put a gun to her head after ambushing her from behind. Eventually, Flax took control of the wheel and drove to an abandoned house on Aurora's east side that his relatives once occupied.

Thus began a terrifying six-hour ordeal in which the woman said she was beaten, raped and used an electrical cord to choke her within seconds of her life after she tried to escape. At one point, after she turned on the light and saw his face, she quoted Flax as saying: "You saw my face. You know what that means."

Flax drove her to a second home, she said, where he eventually let her go.

Police said the woman told them she did not know her attacker, but when they drove her around the neighborhood where she was abducted, she spotted a white cooler on the steps of a house. The woman recognized the cooler from when Flax led her inside the house. The house was being rented to Flax's mother, and police detectives said they soon learned Flax had a key to the first house where the rape took place.

Michael Mara, a senior assistant DuPage County public defender, asked Creswell to impose the minimum of 30 years, while prosecutors Ann Celine O'Hallaren and Anne Therieau sought a 90-year prison term.

"She was subjected to unspeakable things," Therieau said. "It was a complete violation of every part of her being. She was and is a survivor."

Flax's criminal record includes burglary, theft, robbery, retail theft, and disorderly conduct convictions. Also, a 14-year-old Flax forced a 66-year-old woman to disrobe while holding a gun on her during an Oct. 14, 2004 home invasion in Iowa. She escaped unharmed.

In both crimes against women, he used a toy gun. In the Aurora case, the woman said she has nightmares and difficulty trusting others. Still, she is thankful.

"I am glad I survived and because I did, I am now here for my two daughters and husband that I love with all my heart."