Quincy man gets five-year sentence in DOC after pleading guilty to sexual abuse charges with underage sisters

QUINCY — A Quincy man was sentenced to five years in the Illinois Department of Corrections on Friday morning following his guilty plea to two aggravated criminal sexual abuse charges.

Camron Marold, 20, appeared with public defender Todd Nelson before Judge Amy Lannerd in Adams County Circuit Court. Nelson had asked Lannerd to sentence Marold to probation. Assistant state’s attorney Laura Keck asked for Marold to receive a sentence of five years on each of the Class 2 felonies to run concurrent with each other.

Marold also had pled guilty to criminal sexual abuse, a Class A misdemeanor. He received a sentence of 360 days in the Adams County Jail to run concurrently with the five-year sentence to the DOC.

Marold agreed to a plea on May 27. The length of his sentence was capped at five years as part of the agreement. Two other charges — criminal sexual assault, a Class 1 felony, and another charge of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, a Class 2 felony — were dropped as part of the plea agreement.

A grand jury filed a bill of indictment on April 21, determining that Marold had committed the act of sexual penetration with a 15-year-old girl on July 13, 2020, and Oct. 24, 2020. He also committed the act of sexual penetration with the girl’s 13-year-old sister sometime between Oct. 1-18, 2021.

Keck noted in her argument that Marold had claimed in his sex offender evaluation in the pre-sentence investigation that he didn’t believe he needed treatment.

“If we were only talking about the one victim who was 15, I certainly could understand why the probation department may put into (the pre-sentence investigation) that probation is appropriate,” Keck said. “But in this case, we have a second victim, the younger sister, who was only 13 years of age when those incidents occurred.

“It appears Mr. Marold, once he was no longer in a relationship with the older sister, then developed a, quote, relationship with the younger sister and ultimately had sexual intercourse with her.”

Nelson thought Marold’s ability to keep three jobs and lack of criminal history made him a suitable candidate for probation.

“I believe the experiences that Mr. Marold had as a child certainly influenced and probably caused the issues that are being dealt with,” he said. “Those experiences he had as a child certainly influenced and played into the significant mental health issues that Mr. Marold has had to deal with.”

When given the opportunity to make a statement, Marold simply said, “I do feel bad for my victims.”

Lannerd said during the sentencing that a sentence of probation or conditional discharge would “deprecate the seriousness of the crimes committed.”

Marold received credit for serving 177 days in the Adams County Jail.