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player ready...Aurora police said they think two west suburban men charged with a variety of child porn and sex assault felonies victimized even more girls than charging documents reflect, and are encouraging all victims to get in touch with investigators.
While one of the men, Dametrius D. Thornton, is in custody, the other, Ellis T. Burns, is not. An active warrant for Burns’ arrest sets his bail at $5 million, and Aurora Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to his arrest. Thornton is in the Kane County Jail on $750,000 bail.
Police said they have not ruled out additional charges in the open cases and characterized the men as acquaintances in a statement released via Facebook.
Burns, 21, of the 1900 block of Lilac Lane, Aurora, was already a convicted sex offender, according to a criminal complaint filed Dec. 4.
Pending felony charges against Burns include two counts of soliciting a child for pornography videos; five counts of soliciting a child for pornography photos; 13 counts of possession of child pornography; and single counts of criminal sexual assault, intimidation, failure to register as a sex offender and failure to inform police when he changed his social media identifier, violating conditions of parole. Burns is also charged with misdemeanors including four counts of sexually abusing a juvenile, two counts of domestic battery and two counts of distributing obscene material to a minor.
Though he does not appear in Illinois’ public sex offender registry, that’s often the case when someone is convicted of a qualifying offense as a juvenile. Records show he was charged at least four times and convicted at least twice since 2015 of failing to report required information or violating the Sex Offender Registration Act. He was sentenced to 120 days in jail after a violation in 2016 and put on 30 months of probation starting in December 2016, with a scheduled end date in June 2019.
Thornton, 23, of the 100 block of Fox Chase Drive, Oswego, is charged with three counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, two counts of soliciting a child, five counts of distributing explicit material to a minor and single counts of intimidation and electronic harassment.
Thornton’s charges involve three 15-year-olds, including two who Burns allegedly also victimized, police said.
Thornton is next due in court at 9 a.m. Jan. 31 at the Kane County Judicial Center in St. Charles.
Police are asking anyone who knows where they can find Burns to call Crime Stoppers at 630-892-1000 or Aurora investigators at 630-256-5500.