Cable Repairman Sentenced to 75 Years in Sexual Assault

A cable repairman was sentenced Thursday to 75 years in prison for breaking into a apartment, hogtying and sexually assaulting an O’Fallon woman Dec. 5.

O’Fallon Police said the James Helderle, 21, of the 1600 block of Fourth Street in St. Charles, was a CUI Cable repairman who had worked at the woman’s apartment. He had texted her to ask her on a date, and he was fired when the woman complained.

The woman had been talking to her boyfriend on the computer when the connection went dead. The woman’s boyfriend contacted police.

The man tied the woman up, blamed her for ruining his life and told her he would kill her and her family.

When officers responded to her home, they found the woman had been bound, gagged and sexually assaulted. According to police, officers interrupted the assault, causing the suspect to flee through the sliding glass door and jump from the second floor balcony.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported that Circuit Court Judge Nancy Schneider called testimony during the trial “was one of the most terrifying accounts I have heard in my career on the bench.”

In testimony before the sentencing, the woman told Schneider the crime continues to haunt her, according to the Post Dispatch article.

On May 17, a St. Charles County jury found Helderle guilty of first-degree burglary, forcible sodomy, felonious restraint and armed criminal action.

St. Charles County prosecutors recommended a 75-year sentence.