Background: Timothy Doll speaks during his sentencing hearing on Aug. 14 (Shaw Local/YouTube). Inset: Gracie Sasso-Cleveland (Anderson Funeral Home).
An Illinois man with a history of sex offenses against minors was sentenced to more than 50 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to killing a 15-year-old girl.
Timothy Doll, 32, apologized in court and stated that he “deserves every year I am given” during his sentencing hearing on Thursday. Doll previously pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of 15-year-old Gracie Sasso-Cleveland, whom he suffocated and threw in a dumpster in May 2023. A registered sex offender at the time Gracie was killed, Doll said in court that he knew he was in a “highly inappropriate relationship” with the teenage girl.
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Gracie was last seen by her family on May 4, 2023, and was reported missing two days later. Her body was found the following day, May 7, 2023. According to courtroom reporting by local news outlet Shaw Local, Doll and Gracie argued on the night of May 4, 2023, and he suffocated her with a pillow. After she was dead, he removed her clothes and carried her out of his apartment in a laundry basket to dispose of her body in a nearby dumpster.
The DeKalb County Coroner”s Office determined that Gracie’s official manner of death was a homicide and the cause of death was asphyxiation.
As Law&Crime previously reported, police searched Gracie’s cellphone records that indicated on May 4, 2023, she had been at the address registered to Doll. After obtaining and executing several search warrants, police say they obtained evidence that led them to detain Doll the same day Gracie’s body was recovered. He was charged with murder the next day.
Circuit Court Judge Philip Montgomery said Doll “treated her no better than you would an ordinary sack of trash. But she was just not a sack of trash for you to throw away. She was a young woman with dreams and aspirations.” He added, “You stole her innocence. And ultimately, you stole her life.”
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Montgomery sentenced Doll to 52 years in prison with credit for time served. Prosecutors had asked for the maximum of 60 years; Doll’s public defender asked for a 30-year sentence, citing his client’s troubled upbringing and history of mental illness.
Doll had previously been convicted of aggravated sexual abuse in 2020 in a case involving a 14-year-old girl. He completed a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence and 30 months of probation. He was ordered to register as a sex offender and stay away from minors. According to Shaw Local, lead prosecutor Scott Schwertley told the court, “This defendant preys on young teenage girls, abusing them. And no law or court orders have ever stopped him.”
Law&Crime’s Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.
