A Flossmoor man convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 6-year-old Homewood girl in December 2013 was sentenced Monday to 30 years in jail, according to court records.
A jury found Christopher Young, now 56, guilty in January after hearing testimony he took the girl from her home in Homewood in the middle of the night, brought her back to his home where he sexually assaulted her and then returned her to the stoop of a neighbor’s house in the early morning.
Advancements in DNA matching and testimony from witnesses led prosecutors to feel confident to bring charges against Young a decade after the crime. During the multiday trial, the child, now 16, described what happened and pointed to Young, who was seated in the courtroom, when asked who took her from her home Dec. 28, 2013.
The child also selected Young’s face out of a photo lineup when she was 12 and remembered going over a set of train tracks that match where Young’s house was in relation to the child’s home, testimony at trial showed.
Young’s attorney, Tony Thedford, pointed out that immediately after the crime in 2013, the young girl described the man as Black, blue-eyed and bald. Young is Black but does not match the other two features. Thedford also challenged the lineup test, arguing the men in the lineup did not look similar enough to give confidence in the child’s selection.
Thedford did not respond Tuesday to requests for comment and prosecutors on the case could not be reached.
One month after Young was found guilty of aggravated kidnapping and criminal sexual assault, Thedford filed a motion requesting a new trial. He argued that the state did not meet the burden of providing enough evidence to find Young guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Thedford also accused the court of unfairly accepting objections made by prosecutors while denying objections from him in defense of his client.
hsanders@chicagotribune.com