MARION COUNTY — A 34-year-old Centralia man was sentenced Monday to 20 years in prison after the Fifth Appellate Court remanded his case back to the Marion County Court for retrial.

Jerad Peoples was convicted in 2017 after he failed to appear at trial for Class X felony criminal sexual assault of a victim under the age of 13. Three other counts of the same charge were dismissed before the bench trial.

He was located a short time later and authorities reportedly discovered later that he had been in the hospital that day.

Peoples was ultimately sentenced to 35 years in prison on the conviction and while an initial appeal was dismissed, a subsequent attempt was granted and the case was overturned.

On Monday, he pleaded guilty to the Class 1 felony charge of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a person under the age of 13 in exchange for the Class X charge being dismissed. Peoples agreed to a 20-year prison sentence and was remanded into the custody of the Marion County Jail to await transport to the Illinois Department of Corrections.