Kidnapper of motel clerk gets 35 years

By Lindsay Welbers Princeton Reporter

PRINCETON Ten years since he robbed a motel and kidnapped and sexually assaulted the motel clerk, and after a weeklong sentencing hearing, Ricardo Louison was sentenced to 35 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Louison, 47, formerly of LeMars, Iowa, will serve the remainder of another unrelated robbery sentence in the Iowa Department of corrections before he will begin Louison serving in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Louison will be given credit for time served starting on his April 22, 2008, arrival

in the Bureau County Jail and is scheduled to be released from the Iowa Department of Corrections on Oct. 26, 2010. Louison was sentenced to serve 13 years on the kidnapping charge and another 22 years on the sexual assault charge. The sentences will be served consecutively and he is required to serve 85 percent of the sentences at minimum. Louison would be eligible for parole in 2039. He would be 78 years old at that time. The crime occurred on April 19, 1999 when Louison, who was working as a truck driver, pulled into a Princeton motel with the intention of robbing it. Louison testified that at the time of the incident, he had been gambling hundreds of dollars every week. The day before he had lost $23,500 playing blackjack in Sioux City, Iowa.
See 35 years Page A3