People v. Matthews

A jury in the Circuit Court of Peoria County found defendant guilty of rape and aggravated kidnapping. He was sentenced to concurrent terms of 30 to 90 years in prison on the rape conviction and 25 to 50 years on the aggravated kidnapping conviction.

The nature of the issues on appeal permits us to omit a detailed account of this sordid case. The evidence was sufficient to prove that the defendant picked up the nine-year-old prosecutrix near her home, drove her to a rural area, forcibly raped her and abandoned her on a country road.

Defendant contends he was denied a fair trial as a result of…