Convicted Sycamore rapist denied reduced prison sentence for second time

SYCAMORE – A DeKalb County judge has declined to further reduce the prison sentence of a Sycamore man found guilty 18 years ago of abducting and raping a Northern Illinois University student.

DeKalb County Circuit Judge Robbin J. Stuckert last week re-sentenced 52-year-old Todd Allgood to 31 years of imprisonment in the Illinois Department of Corrections, according to a news release from the DeKalb County State's Attorney's Office.

DeKalb County prosecutors during the October 2002 trial presented evidence that the afternoon of April 25, 2001, Allgood abducted the victim, then a 21-year-old NIU student, at gunpoint in a parking lot in the 1100 block of West Lincoln Highway. Allgood forced her to drive them to his home, where he sexually assaulted her. Afterward Allgood made the victim shower in an attempt to destroy evidence, and then threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the sexual assault, before she drove them back to the NIU campus.

Allgood is also linked by DNA evidence to two other rapes in 1989 and 1990 in the Mundelein area, court records show, although neither victim in those cases could identify Allgood as their attacker. DeKalb County prosecutors linked the two rapes to Allgood after the Lake County statute of limitations had expired.

During the trial, which concluded in 2002, Allgood continued to profess his innocence, records show, and maintained the sex had been consensual.

A DeKalb County jury found Allgood guilty of the offenses of aggravated criminal sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping, both Class X felonies.

“I find he’s a very dangerous person to society,” DeKalb County Circuit Judge Douglas Engel said when he issued the 55-year sentence in November 2002.

Engel’s sentence was 30 years for the sexual assault plus 15 years because Allgood used a gun to commit the offense, plus 10 years for the kidnapping. The terms were to be served consecutive to one another. During the sentencing hearing, prosecutors presented evidence that strongly connected Allgood to previously unsolved 1989 and 1990 sexual assaults in Lake County.

Allgood appealed, and in 2015 the Illinois Appellate Court Second District vacated the sentence, ruling that the 15-year gun enhancement violated the Illinois constitution.

In September 2016, Judge Stuckert sentenced Allgood to a total of 31 years in prison.

Allgood again appealed, claiming that his 2002 conviction should be overturned based on the appellate court’s 2015 ruling. The appellate court did not agree, but in July 2019 did return the case to the trial court for re-sentencing.

Last week, Judge Stuckert conducted another sentencing hearing and again sentenced Allgood to a total of 31 years to include time served since Allgood went into custody in April 2001.

“I hope that we have done our work for justice for the last time in this case," said DeKalb County State’s Attorney Rick Amato. "I am very grateful to this defendant’s survivor for returning to face the man who violently assaulted her more than 19 years ago. That could not have been easy, but she recognized that keeping this dangerous defendant in prison for the duration of his sentence protects others in the community. Our job, every day, is justice for the people, regardless of conditions. My thanks to First Assistant State’s Attorney Stephanie Klein for her work in this hearing, and for exercising the same care and professionalism as the original trial team did in 2002."