It took a Wabash County jury less than two and a half hours today to find 53 year old Adam Veira guilty of six sex crimes against family members. The jury of 7 men and 5 women found the Allendale man guilty of two Class X felonies of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and four Class 2 felony charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse from incidents that occurred between May 1st 2000 and December 10th, 2002.
The charges were filed last year by State’s Attorney Kelli Storckman after Veira’s ex-wife contacted Mt. Carmel Police who turned the investigation over the Illinois State Police.
Since the Class X felonies do not offer the possibility of probation, Veira will find out how much time he’ll spend in prison at his sentencing on September 22nd. After the guilty verdict, Judge Michael Valentine revoked Veira’s $30,000 cash bond and remanded him to the Wabash County Jail to await sentencing. Each Class X felony carries a sentence of 6 to 30 years in prison while the Class 2 felony has a possible 3 to 7 years on each count.
The jury returned the verdict at 1:30 this afternoon after beginning deliberations at 11am. The verdict wraps up a weeklong trial that included two days of jury selection on Monday and Tuesday.
The guilty verdict is yet another conviction for Storckman who has successfully prosecuted a variety of sex offenders over the last year.
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Earlier story:
A Wabash County jury of 7 men and 5 women is currently deciding the fate of 53 year old Adam Vaira of Allendale. Closing arguments in Vaira’s sexual assault trial were delivered this morning by state’s attorney Kelli Storckman and defense attorney Melissa Doran. Storckman laid out the six charges against Vaira that include two Class X felony counts of predatory criminal sexual assault and four Class 2 felony charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a family member and the testimony presented at this week’s trial that proved Vaira’s guilt. Doran told jurors that without any physical evidence, the case boils down to he said, she said and which version of the testimony do they believe. She said the alleged victims’ stories were factually implausible and shouldn’t result in a guilty verdict for Vaira.
The jury began deliberations on the six counts at 11am today.
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