COLLINSVILLE, Ill. (TCN) — A 42-year-old man has been handed a 120-year sentence for kidnapping a woman from a Starbucks parking lot and sexually assaulting her.
On Nov. 11, 2022, the 21-year-old victim was sitting in her car in a Starbucks parking lot waiting for her order when Timothy DuBois approached her with a knife, KSDK reports. He was wearing a mask, KTVI reports.
He forced her to drive him to Troy, Illinois, where he sexually assaulted her before making her drive back to the retail complex where he’d first encountered her. Once she had parked in a Wendy’s parking lot, he fled. KTVI reports he placed a coat over the victim’s head before he left.
During the drive, he reportedly turned off the victim’s phone so her location wasn’t trackable, but according to prosecutors, her Apple Watch remained on the whole time, which helped them to later apprehend DuBois.
When investigators used the Apple Watch data to find the location where the victim was attacked, they found a used condom there that DuBois had discarded. Using genetic genealogy technology, investigators found and arrested DuBois four months later, according to KSDK.
The Times-Tribune News reports that 12 agencies assisted the Collinsville Police Department in the investigation.
According to KMOV, DuBois pleaded guilty in May to aggravated criminal sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
At trial, jurors listened to part of DuBois’ recorded confession, in which he said he targeted Starbucks because “that’s where all the women go,” KSDK reports. He said he chose the victim because she was by herself.
The victim also spoke in court, according to KSDK. In her testimony, she said DuBois told her during the attack — which occurred on Veterans Day — that he was a veteran and therefore “deserved” her.
Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine said, “I don’t want to call her a victim in this case because I think she’s really a victor,” according to KSDK.
DuBois was sentenced to 120 years in prison on July 9.
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