Appeals court upholds Tevin Rainey’s 100-year sentence for Westmont sexual assault

Tevin Rainey claimed his sentence for aggravated criminal sexual assault with a firearm was the result of an “improper double enhancement,” according to prosecutors.

By Carly Behm

A man is accused of sexually assaulting a special needs student from 2016 through 2018. — A man’s 100-year prison sentence for sexual assault and armed robbery was affirmed.

An appellate court upheld the 100-year sentence handed down to a west suburban man in 2017 who was convicted of sexually assaulting and robbing a woman who was more than 80-years-old.

Tevin Rainey, 26, broke into the woman’s apartment about 5 a.m. Jan. 1, 2015, while armed with a handgun and sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said.

He then demanded money and forced her to drive to an ATM and give him money from her savings and checking accounts at gunpoint, prosecutors said.

Rainey was found guilty of three counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, two counts of home invasion, one count of armed robbery, one count of aggravated kidnapping and one count of armed violence in 2017, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to 100 years in prison in April of that year.

In his appeal, Rainey challenged his sentence for aggravated criminal sexual assault with a firearm, saying it was the result of an “improper double enhancement” since the court took the woman’s age into consideration for an enhanced sentencing, prosecutors said.

He also argued that his sentence was “excessive” because he felt the court didn’t take his age and background into mitigation, prosecutors said.

However, the court disagreed, saying there was no double enhancement since Rainey’s victim was older than 60, which subjects a defendant to an extended term, prosecutors said. The court also said Rainey’s sentence wasn’t “an abuse of discretion” since it was 20 years less than the maximum sentence allowable under the law.

“Last Friday, the Appellate Court found no error in Judge Telander’s one-hundred-year sentence imposed upon Mr. Rainey,” Du Page County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said. “His attempt to reduce his sentence for a crime that the Trial Court correctly deemed a crime that “shocks the conscience of the community” demonstrates Mr. Rainey’s self-consumed, compassionless, repulsive outlook on society. He has certainly earned each and every day of his sentence.”

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