'Deviant Degenerate' From Joliet Learns His Prison Sentence: Glasgow

JOLIET, IL — Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow issued a press release revealing that Vincent Winters, 58, of Joliet, was sentenced to natural life in prison by Will County Judge Sarah Jones for his predatory criminal sexual assault of a 5-year-old girl in 2017.

On Nov. 16, 2023, a Will County jury found Winters guilty of three counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and three counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of the child. Winters received the life sentence as a result of hisprevious aggravated criminal sexual assault conviction from 1993, according to the state's attorney's office.

According to Glasgow's press release, on Oct. 11, 2017, the mother of the victim was starting a new job and asked Winters to watch her two children and take the victim to school in the morning. In the early morning hours before taking the victim to school, Winters sexually assaulted the girl. When the mother picked her daughter up from school, the girl was upset and told her that Winters had sexually assaulted her.

“Winters is a repulsive and depraved predator who used a mother’s need for help as his opportunity to sexually prey on a little girl in her own home while her mother was hard at work at a new job trying to take care of her children,” Glasgow declared in this week's press release. “This deviant degenerate individual will spend the remainder of his days locked away from society so that he cannot harm another innocent child.”

Glasgow also thanked Sex Crimes Unit Chief Jeffrey Brown, Assistant State’s Attorney Amanda Tasker, Victim Witness Advocate Emma Rannells, Legal Secretary Jean O’Donnell, IT Specialist Bob Valiska, Joliet Police Department Officer Daniel Willis, and Retired Joliet Police Department Detective Shawn Filipiak, for their dedication and commitment in this sensitive matter. Glasgow also commended Will County Children’s Advocacy Center Forensic Interviewer Jaclyn Lundquist for her victim-sensitive interview of the young girl.