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SYCAMORE – A 29-year-old DeKalb man was sentenced by DeKalb County Judge Marcy Buick Wednesday to almost 90 years in prison after he was found guilty of a violent 2021 attack where he pistol-whipped a DeKalb man and raped a woman at gunpoint in front of their children.
Robert D. Gaillard will have to serve at least 85% of his sentence after he was convicted in March by a jury of his peers of aggravated criminal sexual assault, armed robbery and home invasion. Gaillard’s minimum sentence was 63 years since he used a gun in the assault. He faced a maximum of 135 years.
As Buick read his sentence in courtroom 220 Wednesday, Gaillard wore a face mask and looked down at his feet but otherwise didn’t visibly react. Gaillard’s family sat behind him and wept.
“Tell her to stop crying,” Gaillard said at one point, looking back at his mother, Sopheria Gaillard, who appeared during the start of his sentencing hearings May 28 to plead for Buick “to be fair” to her son.
Buick ruled that the violent nature of the crimes the 29-year-old committed, especially against a DeKalb woman in front of her young children, warranted more than a minimum sentence. Gaillard received 60 years for two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, and 25 years for armed robbery and home invasion, all Class X felonies.
“The defendant treated [the woman] as an object with no regard for her life or her children’s life,” Buick said. “He showed no empathy at all for them. During the sentencing hearing before the court, the defendant apologized for his actions. During the pre-sentence investigation, however, he did not accept responsibility for his actions, and he in fact blamed the victims.”
Buick ruled that Gaillard’s likelihood of rehabilitation was low.
DeKalb County State’s Attorney Rick Amato lead the prosecution with Assistant State’s Attorney Suzanne Collins.
“This continues to be one of the most heinous fact patterns we’ve encountered over the most recent years,” Amato said in an interview after the sentencing. “The amount of trauma and pain that the families felt over this is immeasurable. The sentence that was handed to Mr. Gaillard was deserved for his actions and what he inflicted upon these families that night.”
On May 28, Collins read a letter sent in from the woman victim who said she’s since moved out of DeKalb because of the significant trauma she endured after Gaillard held a gun to her head and forced her to perform oral sex while her children were in the room.
“It was just some semblance of justice for our victims in this case, and we’re very pleased with the sentence,” Collins said Wednesday.
Sycamore-based defense attorney Brian Erwin, who represented Gaillard during the three-day trial which concluded March 17, did not respond to request for additional comment.
At Gaillard’s sentencing hearing last month, Erwin argued that prosecutors had failed to prove Gaillard’s guilt fully and questioned the use of DNA evidence in the trial.
Gaillard, who did not offer testimony in his own defense during the trial, offered an apology for his actions May 28, saying he “was wrong about it.”
“Whatever you sentence me to, it’s going to be OK because I take my accountability for the stuff I did,” Gaillard told Buick May 28. “So that’s it.”
During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that showed Gaillard broke into an apartment in the 800 block of Spiros Court on DeKalb’s north side Jan. 19, 2021 and attacked a man and a woman, seemingly in retaliation for a separate incident which involved Gaillard’s fiancée and a gun. Prosecutors said that same gun was used by Gaillard to beat a 27-year-old DeKalb man and raped a woman a gunpoint, forcing her to perform oral sex on him in front of her two young children.
Testimony was offered by law enforcement, forensic experts from the Illinois State Police and witnesses. The victims also testified during the trial, telling the jury how Gaillard broke into their home about 1:17 a.m. that night and violently attacked them. The victims’ children were asleep in the room where the woman was raped. The male victim’s brother, who also testified, fled the apartment and called police to report the attack.
Prosecutors for days presented the jury with evidence and witness testimony which connected Gaillard to the attack using DNA, body camera footage from DeKalb and Northern Illinois University police who responded to the scene and police interview footage. The woman victim’s DNA was found on a swab collected from Gaillard’s genitals by forensic teams, and both victims’ DNA and Gaillard’s was found on the gun, according to witness testimony and DNA forensic results presented.
Gaillard pleaded not guilty to all charges prior to the trial, and denied the rape occurred in a police interview, records show.
Gaillard earned time for his one year he has served in DeKalb County Jail since his January 2021 arrest. He is required to serve 85% of his time, will not be required to pay fines, and his convictions are not eligible for parole.