Joliet man who committed brutal rape gets maximum 90 years

in

June 29

JOLIET – Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow announces that a Joliet man who forced his way into a woman’s home and brutally raped her was sentenced to a maximum sentence of 90 years in prison today.

A jury in April found Russell Amos Jr., 46, of 607 Whitley, Joliet, guilty of one count of Home Invasion and two counts of Aggravated Criminal Sexual Assault.  The charges are all Class X felonies that carry a minimum mandatory sentence of six years and a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. Circuit Judge Carla Alessio Policandriotes handed down the maximum 30-year sentence on each count, each sentence to be served one after the other.

Amos struck up a conversation with the victim as she sat on her front porch on April 15, 2009. He followed her into her home when she went inside and raped her. During the commission of the offense, Amos used a miniature baseball bat the victim had produced to defend herself. The victim suffered serious internal injuries as a result of the attack, during which she was struck with the bat and choked.

Assistant State’s Attorneys Matt Guzman and Christine Vukmir, who secured the conviction at trial, asked Judge Policandriotes for an extensive sentence based on the defendant’s violent past. He was convicted in Georgia in 1988 of kidnapping a woman at gunpoint. He served 10 years of his sentence and, after violating his parole, was placed back behind bars for another three years. He also was arrested in Will County in 1985 for holding a knife to a woman’s throat and threatening to choke the life out of her.

“Russell Amos is an extraordinarily violent criminal who has proven over and over again that he is a threat to any defenseless woman in his path,” said State’s Attorney Glasgow. “After hearing the facts of this horrific rape and home invasion during the trial and listening to arguments presented by my two skilled prosecutors at sentencing, Judge Policandriotes guaranteed that this monster will never again walk free to harm another woman.”