Dewey man on trial in sexual assault of a teen girl at Rantoul hotel

Mar. 30—URBANA — A teenage girl grabbed a waste can to vomit in Tuesday as she testified in a courtroom filled with strangers about being sexually assaulted by a Dewey man she trusted.

After a brief recess to allow her to collect herself, the teen then continued her disturbing testimony against Josh A. Stover, 50, charged with criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse for acts he is accused of committing on the girl in March 2020.

The case is expected to go to the jury today.

Stover told Judge Randy Rosenbaum he does not intend to testify.

If convicted, Stover faces the possibility of decades in prison, a number affected by whether the jury believes that the abuse occurred while the victim was intoxicated.

A jury of seven men and five women was selected Tuesday to hear the evidence against Stover, who held a position of trust over the teen.

The girl testified that on March 6, 2020, Stover invited her to go with him to spend the night at the Holiday Inn Express in Rantoul.

She agreed to go after he told her she could invite friends to join them at the hotel.

A friend of Stover's drove them from Dewey to Rantoul because Stover had been drinking. Stover took beer to the hotel.

The girl said only one of her friends was able to come to the hotel, and Stover pressed that young man into driving them to a nearby gas station, where Stover bought more liquor.

Both the girl and the friend testified that Stover bought Twisted Tea, Mike's Hard Lemonade and Fireball (cinnamon-flavored whiskey) shooters, which they brought back to the room.

There, Stover allowed the girl to drink alcohol.

After her friend left about 11:30 p.m., Stover left the hotel room and went to Rantoul bars.

The girl testified that she continued drinking alone in the room until she passed out about 1 a.m. March 7 on the floor, fully clothed, between the two beds in the room.

Later, she said she was in and out of sleep and could feel Stover's hands, mouth and penis on various parts of her body.

She woke fully about 4 a.m., she said, to Stover being on top of her.

She had no clothes on and jumped from the bed, yelling at him to stop.

She then locked herself in the bathroom and called her male friend to report what Stover had done to her and asked if he could come get her.

He could not come right away, he testified, because his father wouldn't let him leave the house at 4 a.m.

Stover then stood outside the door and said he would give her money and that he was going to leave.

The jury saw a video that showed Stover putting cash in an envelope at the hotel front desk, which he left there for the girl before exiting the hotel.

She testified she took a bath because "I felt gross," then crawled into one of the beds and slept until later that morning, when her friend called to say he was on his way.

Returning to her home, she told an adult what had happened and that person called police, who called for an ambulance.

The teen told an emergency medical technician about being sexually assaulted, then at Carle Foundation Hospital, she told a sexual-assault nurse examiner what had happened.

Frankie Moore, the Carle nurse who did the sex-assault exam, testified that the teen was able to tell her some parts of what happened to her, then wrote out others because she was unable to say the words.

In her physical examination of the teen, the nurse found redness in the teen's genital area.

She described the teen as "very tearful, withdrawn and quiet," during the hourslong exam.

In other testimony, Illinois state crime lab DNA scientist Jennifer Aper said male DNA was found in the teen and that her young male friend was excluded as a contributor, while Stover was included as a possible contributor.

Rantoul police Detective Matt Bross testified that Stover denied any sexual contact with the girl and said she told him when she woke early that morning that she was going to make allegations that he sexually assaulted her.

Bross said Stover could not recall if the teen was clothed when she got out of bed and said he had left money for her at the front desk when he left.

Returning to his home later that day and finding himself locked out, Stover then got in his sport utility vehicle and drove it into an embankment by railroad tracks west of Dewey in an attempt to kill himself, Bross testified.