A 38-year-old Centralia man has been resentenced to a ten-year prison term for a 2012 aggravated criminal sexual assault after an original 30-year sentence was thrown out by the 5th District Appellate Court because of a procedural error. With credit for time served, Brian Minton has already completed the sentence. However, he was remanded back to the Illinois Department of Corrections following the Tuesday plea agreement to be placed on parole.
Under the sentence, Minton will have to serve three years to life on mandatory supervised release and register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. A second Class X charge of home invasion Minton was originally convicted in September 2012 was dropped.
Minton appealed the sentence in 2015. After the appellate court overturned the original sentence and conviction it was returned to Marion County Circuit Court in February of last year to start the case over.
State’s Attorney Tim Hudspeth says, unfortunately, the victim passed away while the appeal was pending. He reports as a result of the victim being the only witness to the horrific actions, there would now be no one to testify as to what Minton did, meaning there is no way to present sufficient evidence to obtain a conviction on those charges.
Hudspeth says the evidentiary issues and the plea agreement were discussed with the victim’s surviving children who understood there would likely be no conviction without any testimony from the only witness. In light of this and believing that a sentence on any other charge would trivialize Minton’s crimes, it was agreed Minton would plead guilty to the aggravated criminal sexual assault charge in exchange for the ten-year prison term.
Centralia Police reports from the January 1st, 2012 incident indicate the victim was asleep and woke when a light in the room briefly turned on and she saw the silhouette of a man. After she began screaming, the man allegedly started to stick his fingers in her mouth and down her throat. The victim said she had difficulty breathing and eventually passed out. When she came to, the woman said the man threatened to kill her if she wouldn’t commit sex acts with him. She also reported the man had grabbed her hair and dragged her off the bed just before police started coming up the stairs when they heard crying.
