Rock Falls man gets 18 years for child sex assault

MORRISON – A Rock Falls man already serving nine years in prison for sexually assaulting a child was sentenced again Tuesday to 18 years for sexually abusing another child.

Both girls were 10 at the time.

A trial for Tyler S. Shaw-Sodaro, 33, was to begin Tuesday in Whiteside County Court; he was charged with five counts of predatory sexual assault of a child younger than 13, attempted predatory sexual assault and two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault.

Instead, he pleaded guilty to one count of predatory sexual assault; the other charges were dismissed per a plea agreement.

Shaw-Sodaro was charged Nov. 29, 2018, with one count of sexual assault of a child younger than 13. Investigators say he fondled the girl’s chest that Sept. 2.

A jury found him guilty and Judge Trish Senneff sentenced him to nine years on March 2, 2022.

He appealed his sentence, among other things, to the 4th District Appellate Court, but lost his appeal on Nov. 23, 2023.

Shaw-Sodaro was free on bond in that case when he was charged July 25, 2019, with sexually assaulting the other 10-year-old.

Investigators said he performed a variety of sex acts on the child between July 4 and Aug. 15, 2018, which would have been a month or two before his Sept. 2 attack on the other girl.

For that attack, Senneff sentenced Shaw-Sodaro to 18 years; he must serve 85% and was given credit for 1,646 days served, from July 16, 2019, until Tuesday.

It will run concurrently with his first sentence. Probation is not available, and he must register as a sex offender. He will be on mandatory supervised release for three years to life once his sentence is served.

He is currently serving time in the Taylorville Correctional Center.

In January 2010, Shaw-Sodaro was sentenced in Whiteside County to 4 years’ probation for an aggravated robbery committed 4 months earlier; a count of armed robbery was dismissed per his plea agreement.