Sterling man pleads guilty in Lee County criminal sexual assault case

DIXON — A Sterling man has been sentenced to seven years in state prison after pleading guilty in Lee County to felony criminal sexual assault using force.

Brett E. Benters, 41, pleaded guilty to the 2022 charge Thursday in Lee County Circuit Court. One count each of aggravated criminal sexual assault with a weapon and aggravated domestic battery/strangulation were dismissed as part of a plea deal.

The initial charges, filed Aug. 26, 2022, accused Benters of using a knife to force a woman to perform a sex act, raping and strangling her.

In pleading guilty, Benters acknowledged that on July 5 and 6, 2022, he threatened a woman by telling her he would choke her until she passed out if she did not have sex with him.

Benters, who faced up to a 15-year sentence on the criminal sexual assault with force charge, will be sent to Stateville Correctional Center. He must serve 85% of his seven-year sentence, according to court records. He will be given credit for 874 days already served in custody.

If convicted of all three original charges, he would have also faced 16 to 40 years in prison for criminal sexual assault using a dangerous weapon and anywhere from three to seven years on the battery charge.

Benters' criminal record also includes a four-year prison sentence handed down Oct. 29, 2008, for selling narcotics in a park, five years for burglary in 2003, and four years’ probation for burglary and making meth in 2002, all in Whiteside County.

In another Whiteside County case, Benters was charged July 7, 2022, with home invasion causing an injury, aggravated battery and being a felon in possession of a weapon.

In that case, sheriff’s deputies serving Benters a Lee County warrant July 6, 2022, for violating a court order found him that afternoon at a home in rural Sterling, where a resident who knew Benters said he forced his way inside.

The two got into a fight, and Benters fired a handgun several times inside and outside the home, Whiteside County Sheriff John Booker said. No one was hit, but both men were slightly injured in the scuffle.

All three of those charges were dismissed Aug. 21, 2024, on a motion from the prosecution.