A Chicago man arrested for molesting his 7-year-old relative while the girl participated in an online learning session has been handed an 11-year jail sentence.
Catrell Walls, 21, was sentenced Wednesday for the sexual assault, which took place three years ago in the home of the girl’s grandmother during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The crime was caught on video during a break in the girl’s online class, FOX 32 Chicago reported. The girl had been staying at her grandmother’s house in West Chesterfield during the day for remote learning.
The microphone was muted on the girl’s computer, but the camera reportedly broadcasted the girl’s assault to a few students logged in to the Google Meets session.
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This booking photo provided by the Cook County, Illinois, Sheriff’s Office shows Catrell Walls, who pleaded guilty to a felony sexual assault charge for the Oct. 15, 2020, attack on his 7-year-old relative. (Cook County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
The teacher, who was working on another computer during the break, heard two other students ask, “What is going on? What is happening?”
When the teacher checked in on her online class, she saw the 7-year-old girl with her pants pulled down and Walls forcing her to perform oral sex on him, prosecutors said, according to FOX 32.
After the teacher alerted the school’s principal, the principal contacted the girl’s family, Chicago police and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
The girl’s father, the school’s principal and chief executive officer went to the home to ask the girl about what happened. Initially, she told them that Walls “just hit her.”
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A Chicago police officer. ((Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images))
However, when the principal pulled the girl away to speak to her one-on-one, she described a sexual assault and said it was not the first time this had happened, according to the report. The girl was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital for examination.
Walls was arrested the next day. During an interrogation by detectives, he admitted to what the teacher and students had witnessed on video, as well as other assault on the girl since she turned 6, FOX 32 reported.
“I don’t know why. I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” a tearful Walls told prosecutors after he was taken into custody.
Walls was an 18-year-old high school senior at the time of his arrest. His defense attorney had claimed Walls had trouble controlling his impulses because he suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
A student attends an online class from home in Miami on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020. Remote learning became essential during the COVID-19 pandemic, when students were not permitted to attend school in-person in the U.S. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Walls pleaded guilty to a felony sexual assault charge for the Oct. 15, 2020, attack. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped two other felony counts and an unrelated weapons case, the Chicago Tribune reported.
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Authorities did not say how Walls and the girl were related.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
