Rapist gets 50 years for vicious attack in Illinois park

A Madison County, IL judge gave a convicted rapist a harsher sentence than even prosecutors asked for yesterday, April 26, after the victim testified about her injuries caused by the attack. Associate Judge Kyle Napp sentenced 31 year old Keith Recklein, of Granite City, IL, to 50 years in prison. The sentence breakdown is as follows - 2 25 year terms to be served consecutively  for two Class X felonies of aggravated criminal sexual assault and 5 years to be served concurrently to the sexual assault charges for aggravated battery.

In the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Recklein telephoned the woman, a stranger, after midnight on May 1, 2008, and lured her to Horseshoe Lake State Park near Granite City with a claim that a friend of hers was there and needed help. The call was made on her friend's cell phone. Park workers found the woman, then 20, of Lebanon, unconscious with critical head injuries, the next morning.

The woman said she remembered meeting a man at the park but said she lost consciousness when he put her in a head lock, and did not remember the beating or sexual assault. She awoke later in a hospital, suffering from a facial fracture, fractured ribs and a brain injury. She said she feared for a time that she was pregnant with her attacker's child.

Police had no suspect in the case for several months, but then reinterviewed people who had been at a bar in Caseyville with the victim's friend when he passed out and was taken home. The man later noticed that his cell phone was missing. Recklein was one of the people at the bar, and an expert witness said DNA found on the victim's panties was likely from Recklein.

Judge Napp presided over Reichert's bench trial last October, finding him guilty. The testimony which influenced her the most was a park worker's testimony that he thought the woman was a pile of garbage dumped in the park before moving closer. Judge Napp said that Reichert treated his victim like a piece of garbage and that he was a danger to society.
 
Reichert's attorney Charles Stegmeyer said his client had a wife and children which needed him. For trying to kill someone else's grown daughter for his sexual pleasure, Reichert lost the right to be a father to his children.