New Lenox Man Gets Maximum 30-Year Sentence for 2003 Sexual Assault In Frankfort

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August 23

JOLIET — Will County States Attorney James Glasgow announced Thursday (Aug. 23, 2007) that a New Lenox man who sexually assaulted a woman at gunpoint at her Frankfort place of business in 2003 has received the maximum prison sentence under state law for his crime.

David Baller, 44, of 1201 S. Spencer Road, was sentenced by Circuit Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak to 30 years in prison. Baller pleaded guilty in June to one count of aggravated criminal sexual assault shortly before his case was to go to trial. He must serve 85 percent of his sentence.

Baller already is serving a 50-year sentence for two counts of sexual assault in Orland Park in Cook County.  The 30-year sentence in Will County must run consecutive to the Cook County sentence.

David Baller committed an act of brutal sexual violence four years ago in Frankfort, Glasgow said. The sentence he received in Will County today guarantees that this cowardly sexual predator will never again be free to viciously attack another woman on our streets.

In the Frankfort case, Baller entered the victims place of business at about 8 p.m. on Jan. 8, 2003 wearing a mask and a camouflage jacket. He forced the woman into a back office at gunpoint where he sexually assaulted her.

The victim was treated at a local hospital. Semen samples retrieved from the victims clothes enabled investigators to develop a DNA profile of the assailant. However, there were no matches at the time for the profile in the national database.

Baller remained at large until 2005, when Flossmoor police questioned him in connection with a string of indecent exposures in their community. Baller also was connected at that time to the sexual assault in Orland Park. He was convicted in the Orland Park case in 2006 and sentenced to 50 years in prison.

DNA evidence collected during the Orland Park investigation matched the profile in the Frankfort case. The Will County States Attorneys Office immediately filed felony aggravated sexual assault charges against Baller.

Glasgow credited the cooperation between local police departments for linking Baller to the Frankfort attack. Solid police work enabled two of his assistant states attorneys Lea Norbut, who heads his criminal division, and Michael Fitzgerald to secure a guilty plea from a dangerous predator.