Flossmoor man sentenced to 30 years in prison for 2013 sexual assault in Homewood

A Flossmoor man convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 6-year-old Homewood girl in December 2013 was sentenced to 30 years in prison Monday, according to court records.

A jury found Christopher Young, now 56, guilty in January after he testified that he took the girl from her Homewood home in the middle of the night, took her back to his home, where he sexually abused her, and she then returned to the stairs of a neighbor’s house early in the morning.

Advances in DNA matching and witness testimony meant prosecutors were confident about filing charges against Young a decade after the crime. During the trial, which lasted several days, the child, now 16, described the incident and pointed to Young, who was sitting in the courtroom, when asked who took her from her home on December 28, 2013.

The child also selected Young’s face from a lineup of photos when he was 12 years old and remembered driving over a set of train tracks that matched the location of Young’s home in relation to the child’s home, according to testimony in the process showed.

Young’s lawyer 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 fit the other two characteristics. Thedford also questioned the lineup test, arguing that the men in the lineup did not look similar enough to inspire confidence in the child’s selection.

Thedford did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday and prosecutors could not be reached in the case.

A month after Young was found guilty of aggravated kidnapping and criminal sexual assault, Thedford filed a motion for a new trial. He argued that the state had failed to meet its obligation to present enough evidence to find Young guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Thedford also accused the court of wrongly accepting the objections raised by the prosecution while rejecting the objections raised by him in defense of his client.

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