Woodstock man who threatened to rape mentally disabled girl gets prison

Marcus D. Sessom got a second chance in April when a Kane County judge agreed to give him probation in a case initiated with allegations he had unlawful sexual contact with a minor in an Elgin residence last year.

One week later, authorities say, Sessom was on a McHenry County street threatening to rape a mentally disabled teenager and kill her family after she refused to get in his car.

This time, the Woodstock man's pleas for another chance fell on deaf ears.

Instead, McHenry County Judge Sharon Prather on Monday sentenced Sessom to 2½ years in prison for his conviction on a charge of intimidation stemming from the May 1 incident.

After a two-day trial in September, Prather found Sessom guilty of the Class 3 felony charge, which alleged he drove up to the 17-year-old girl as she walked home from school along a Woodstock street and told her to get in his car. When she refused, authorities said, Sessom made numerous threats until the girl ran home and told an adult about the encounter.

The incident occurred exactly one week after Sessom admitted guilt to an unlawful restraint charge stemming from an April 2008 incident with a minor girl. He initially had been charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse, but that charge was dropped as part of a plea bargain.

McHenry County prosecutors had asked for a six-year prison term, but Sessom pleaded for leniency, reminding the court of his service in the U.S. Navy and saying he needs to be out earning money to take care of his children.

"I'm not the person I'm being made out to be," he said. "I'm a great person."

With time served since his arrest in May, and likely day-for-day and other credit while in prison, Sessom could be free as soon as early 2010.