January 31, 2024

JOLIET— Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow announces that Vincent Winters, 58, of Joliet, was sentenced today to his natural life in prison by Judge Sarah Jones for his predatory criminal sexual assault of a 5-year-old girl in 2017. On November 16, 2023, a Will County jury found Winters guilty of three counts of Predatory Criminal Sexual Assault of a Child (a Class X felony) and three counts of Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse (a Class 2 felony) of the child. Winters received the life sentence as a result of his previous aggravated criminal sexual assault conviction from 1993.

On October 11, 2017, the mother of the victim was starting a new job and asked Winters to watch her two children and take the victim to school in the morning. In the early morning hours before taking the victim to school, Winters sexually assaulted the girl. When the mother picked her daughter up from school, the girl was upset and told her that Winters had sexually assaulted her. “Winters is a repulsive and depraved predator who used a mother’s need for help as his opportunity to sexually prey on a little girl in her own home while her mother was hard at work at a new job trying to take care of her children,” Glasgow said. “This deviant degenerate individual will spend the remainder ofhis days locked away from society so that he cannot harm another innocent child.” Glasgow thanked Sex Crimes Unit Chief Jeffrey Brown, Assistant State’s Attorney Amanda Tasker, Victim Witness Advocate Emma Rannells, Legal Secretary Jean O’Donnell, IT Specialist Bob Valiska, Joliet Police Department Officer Daniel Willis, and Retired Joliet Police Department Detective Shawn Filipiak, for their dedication and commitment in this sensitive matter. Glasgow also commended Will County Children’s Advocacy Center Forensic Interviewer Jaclyn Lundquist for her victim-sensitive interview of the young girl. The CAC was established by Glasgow in 1995 to offer services and advocacy to children who are victims of sexual abuse and severe physical abuse. Forensic interviews of children are conducted at the CAC after there has been a report to law enforcement or DCFS of severe physical abuse, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, child pornography, neglect, or exposure to violence. The CAC uses a collaborative approach to taking a child’s statement with multi-disciplinary team members that include law enforcement, mental health professionals, prosecution, and child protective services (DCFS), with the child telling their story once to a trained forensic interviewer who asks the questions in a non-leading manner in a way that does not re-traumatize the child. This protects the integrity of the information gathered and allows prosecutors and investigators to thoroughly assess possible criminal offenses that may have been committed.

Annually, the Will County CAC serves more than 700 children who have endured physical and sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, child pornography, neglect, and exposure to violence.