Two sentenced in Fayette County Court for criminal sexual assault cases

The Fayette County State’s Attorney office announced the convictions of two local cases this past week.

Clint A. Evans, 50, of Brownstown entered into a negotiated plea of guilty on Wednesday, Nov. 15, to two counts of Class 1 felony criminal sexual assault. Judge Allan Lolie sentenced Evans to 16 total years in prison, or 8 years for each count to be served consecutively.

Evans was arrested in August and charged with 7 total counts of criminal sexual assault. According to charging documents filed with the Fayette County Circuit Clerk’s Office, Evans committed the assaults with a female victim who was younger than 18 years old, and those reported incidents occurred on various dates between June 2019 and July 12, 2023.

All of the other assault charges were dismissed as part of the plea arrangement. Bond had been set at $300,000, but Evans had remained in jail since his arrest after a detention hearing had found that it was necessary to detain prior to trial.

Evans must serve 85 percent of the sentence, according to online court records. He was also ordered to be placed on 3 years mandatory supervised release.

In the other case, Blake D. Knott, 32, of St. Peter had pleaded guilty to Class 1 felony criminal sexual assault on Wednesday. Knott was sentenced to 4 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections by Judge Lolie.

Knott was arrested in August, and, according to online court records, the original charge of criminal sexual assault by force reportedly occurred in December 2022.

Other charges, including Class 4 criminal damage to government property and a misdemeanor count of resisting a peace officer, were dismissed as part of the negotiated plea.

Knott was credited with 101 days served. He was also placed on three years mandatory supervised release.