URBANA — A Tennessee truck driver remains in the Champaign County Jail on a high bond after being charged with the brutal rape of a woman he met in Champaign.
James R. Hill Jr., 54, was arraigned Tuesday by Judge Chad Beckett on four counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault stemming from an alleged attack on a 47-year-old Champaign woman that happened on April 20.
According to a Champaign police report, on April 21, deputies from the Iroquois County sheriff’s office were sent to a rural area of the county to rescue a woman who was found nude and in handcuffs.
She reported that she had been at a Champaign gambling establishment on April 20 and met a man in a semi who was in the parking lot. After speaking with him a bit, she agreed to get in his truck.
She told police that after a short time, the driver allegedly pulled a pistol, put it to her head and told her to get in the sleeper portion of his cab.
She said the man told her he planned to kidnap her, keep her for a few days, then kill her.
The woman said she complied with his commands to move toward the sleeper when the truck driver slapped her across the face, pushed her on the bed and ordered her to disrobe.
Upset that she was not taking her clothes off fast enough, the man began taking them off her and once she was naked, handcuffed her behind her back.
She said the man allegedly sexually assaulted her in different ways and put duct tape on her mouth.
Both of them went to sleep and she said when he woke, they left the area and after a while, he stopped the truck, shoved her out and left.
The woman was able to identify the truck for police and the company was contacted, leading to Hill. When police spoke with him, he stated the contact with the woman was consensual.
Hill, of Medon, Tenn., turned himself into authorities in that state on May 11 and was returned to Urbana on Saturday.
If convicted of the Class X felonies, he faces at least six to 30 years in prison. Beckett told him to return to court June 27. Hill is being held in lieu of $850,000 bond.