MARION COUNTY — A 57-year-old Salem man was sentenced Tuesday in Marion County Court to 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a child.

Rayvon T. Garner
(Source: SPD)

Rayvon T. Garner has remained in the Marion County Jail since 2020 arrest with bail set at 150,000. He was arrested last summer and charged with Class X and Class 1 felony predatory criminal sexual assault of a victim under the age of 13.

Garner was scheduled for a pre-trial hearing Tuesday in preparation of an October jury trial. However, he instead pleaded guilty to the lesser of the two charges and agreed to a 15-year prison sentence to be followed by a one-year term of parole. The Class X felony charge was dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

Court records indicate Garner’s victim was an 11-year-old family member and that Garner admitted during questioning by police to committing the offense.

Garner was convicted in 1990 in Marion County of Class 2 felony aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a child between the ages of 13 and 16.
He was sentenced in that case to 5-years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Sentencing guidelines at the time, however, did not require a life-time registration so he was no longer listed on the Illinois Sex Offender Registry despite violating the registry multiple times.