Steven Feagin, Former Illinois RB, Sentenced To 90 Years For Rape

Steven Feagin, a former University of Illinois running back, has been sentenced to 90 years in prison for sexually assaulting a student in 1995.

Prosecutors in Illinois’ Champaign County say Feagin, now 42-years-old, was sentenced Wednesday after being found guilty in June of raping the then-22-year-old art student in her Urbana apartment building.

Authorities suspected the former Illini running back in two other long-unsolved Champaign County rapes (from 1993 and 1995) and had left the cases open until DNA from the incidents was matched to that from an unknown offender in a 2007 Florida case.

The search led police to Feagin, and police charged him in the three Illinois assaults after taking a DNA sample.

According to the Broward Palm Beach New Times, the jury took less than an hour to find Feagin guilty of rape.

During the trial, the former athlete spoke briefly, apologizing to “those involved that to go through the ordeal of the case and trial.”

The victim, however, said she’s lived her life in fear ever since.

“The kind of fear only victims know, and has manifested itself in so many ways,” she said. “Daily things that I wouldn’t have thought much about before have and still cause me anxiety and uncertainty and worry. Every unlocked window and every unlocked door. A car driving slowly past my house at night. Walking back to my car after a shopping trip.”

Steven Feagin, who still awaits trial for his two other assaults, will be eligible parole after 43 years — at age 85.