A 42-year-old Indiana man has been sentenced to nearly four decades behind bars for the 2017 abduction of a child in the south suburbs, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.
A jury last year convicted Bryan Protho, of East Chicago, on one count of kidnapping. Protho had been accused of grabbing a 10-year-old girl off the street in Calumet City, assaulting her in his vehicle and threatening to kill her on Dec. 20, 2017.
The child was able to flee and flagged down a passing motorist, authorities said. The girl testified at Protho's trial.
U.S. District Judge Andrea R. Wood on Wednesday sentenced Protho to 38 years in prison, to be followed by 15 years of court-supervised release, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago said.
"As this innocent child skipped home from school with dreams of the upcoming Christmas break in her head, Protho attacked and forever changed the life of this bright child," federal prosecutors said in a court filing before the sentencing. "He is the worst kind of predator – a child predator."
