A Jacksonville man arrested in November for molesting two minors may spend the rest of his natural life in prison.
62 year old John A. Levins of the 100 block of Woodfield Boulevard pled guilty to one count of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child. Assistant State’s Attorney Chad Turner says that the investigation into Levins’ behavior began with an out-of-state phone call to local authorities, leading Jacksonville Police Detectives to arrest Levins at his residence on November 17th: “There were two [minor] victims. One of them was a little bit older than the other, who was very young. How it came about that the investigation got initiated was that the older victim who does not live in Illinois told her parents about [the crime] and they contacted the parents of the younger victim who does live here, and they asked their daughter about it. Then, all of the floodgates opened and everything started to come about in the mid-to-late summer last year. That led the parents to call the authorities here and the investigation got under way and that led to some obviously very credible evidence to some very bad behavior.”
Levins’ plea led to a sentence of 23 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Turner says due to Illinois’ truth in sentencing law, Levins must serve at least 85% of his sentence. Levins will be credited for 107 days served in the Morgan County Jail.
Turner says that Levins’ court proceedings aren’t over yet: “Part of the investigation, as I said, was initiated by a victim that lives in Ohio. The Ohio authorities have alleged that in addition to victimizing that young girl that lives in Ohio while he was here in Illinois with her, he also victimized her in the State of Ohio and they are prosecuting him for that. I don’t know what their analysis is going to be in relation to whether or not they want to go forward with their charges based upon the significant nature of the sentencing here, or whether they might forego that given that I think it’s quite likely that the defendant, Mr. Levins, is going to die in prison or they may so ‘no.’ The people of Ohio may want their pound of flesh as well, so to speak, so there will be more court proceedings, just not in the State of Illinois.”
Levins remains at the Morgan County Jail awaiting transfer into the Illinois Department of Corrections.