88-Year Sentence For Oak Brook Sex Assault Suspect Affirmed

OAK BROOK, IL – An appeals court affirmed the 88-year prison sentence for a man who was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman at an Oak Brook hotel, prosecutors said Friday.

In the late morning of Sept. 9, 2019, Julius Ramsey, now 42, forced the woman at gunpoint into a vacant room at the Hyatt House, where he sexually assaulted her several times and threatened to kill her. The woman escaped the room and reported the assault.

During a three-day trial in May 2021, a jury found Ramsey guilty of three counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault with a firearm, one count of aggravated kidnapping with a firearm and one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, all felonies.

In his appeal, Ramsey claimed his attorney was ineffective for failing to explain to the jury why the defendant did not testify at trial after they had been told he would, according to a news release from DuPage County prosecutors.

In a decision Friday, the Third District Appellate Court rejected Ramsey's claims and found that at trial, Ramsey's lawyer "put forth a rigorous defense and appropriately addressed the absence of defendant's testimony during his closing argument."

The court said Ramsey's attorney highlighted his constitutional right not to testify and emphasized the state's burden to prove the charges.

"We fail to identify what more counsel could have said to remedy defendant’s own last-minute decision not to testify," the appeals court said.