DeKalb man pleads guilty, sentenced to 20 years for child sex assault: records

SYCAMORE – A DeKalb man pleaded guilty this week to sexually assaulting a child and was sentenced by a DeKalb County judge to 20 years in prison, according to court records.

Luke W. Heffner, 36, waived his right to a jury trial Monday and pleaded guilty to one count of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, a Class X felony, court records show.

Accepting Heffner’s plea, Circuit Court Judge Marcy Buick sentenced him to 20 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, according to DeKalb County court records filed Tuesday.

Heffner must serve 85% of his sentence.

He will get credit for the two days he served in DeKalb County Jail following his Oct. 2, 2020, arrest, and the subsequent 1,250 days he’s been out on supervised release, court records show.

Heffner was represented by defense attorney Calvin Campbell. Brooks Locke of the DeKalb County State’s Attorney’s Office led the prosecution at the plea hearing, according to court records.

Heffner was originally charged in October 2020 with six counts of Class X felony predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, according to court records filed Oct. 2, 2020. The charges came after a DeKalb police investigation prompted by a sex assault report in August of that year that alleged Heffner sexually assaulted a child multiple times between 2014 and 2018, according to court records.