Man gets more than 14 years in prison for 2017 child rape
A 29-year-old man pleaded guilty Thursday to sexually assaulting a child in Sleepy Hollow in 2017 and was sentenced to 14½ years in prison.
Jose Luis Cruz Francisco, of the 900 block of Locust Drive, Sleepy Hollow, pleaded guilty to one count of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child younger than 13, a felony punishable by a top prison term of 30 years.
Cruz Francisco was arrested in April 2017 after the mother of the 8-year-old came home early from work and saw Cruz Francisco assaulting the girl, according to a search warrant.
The woman immediately called police. Cruz Francisco denied any wrongdoing, but the victim told investigators that he told her not to tell anyone or her family would have to move back to Iowa, according to the search warrant.
Cruz Francisco was slated for a jury trial Aug. 26 on five counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child younger than 13 and five counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, records show.
Kane County Judge David Kliment accepted the guilty plea, in which prosecutors dismissed the remaining four predatory sexual assault counts and the five aggravated criminal sexual assault counts.
If convicted of all 10 charges at trial, Cruz Francisco faced a sentence ranging from 34 to 165 years in prison.
Under state law, Cruz Francisco must serve 85%, or a little more than 12 years, of his sentence.
He gets 843 days credit, or nearly 28 months, toward his sentence for time served at the Kane County jail while the case was pending.
He must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.