A Delaware County judge sentenced a 45-year-old man to 20 to 40 years in state prison Tuesday for sexually assaulting a child, rejecting his claims of innocence after a jury convicted him this past June following roughly two hours of deliberation. Kristopher C. Williams was also ordered to serve three years of consecutive probation and to register for life as a sex offender under Megan's Law.
Judge Dominic Pileggi of the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas handed down the sentence after Williams was convicted of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, attempted IDSI, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault of a victim under 13, corruption of minors, and unlawful contact with a minor, according to the Delco Times. The jury also found that Williams engaged in a course of conduct in committing the crimes, the outlet reported.
At trial, the victim testified that Williams came into her room when she was a young child and sexually assaulted her, and that he later exposed himself and told her to perform a sex act on him during a sibling's birthday party, per the same report. She testified she told Williams she would tell her mother, but she ultimately disclosed the abuse to her father years later — a disclosure that triggered the investigation leading to charges.
Mandatory Minimums Shaped the Sentencing Math
Assistant District Attorney Bryan Barth asked Judge Pileggi to run the mandatory minimum 10-to-20-year terms for the IDSI and aggravated indecent assault counts consecutively, according to the Delco Times' account of the hearing. For the specified offenses, Pennsylvania law sets a minimum of 10 years for IDSI and five years for aggravated indecent assault under § 3125(a)(1) through (6), with no parole eligibility until the applicable minimum term is served under 42 Pa.C.S. § 9718. Defense attorney Zoe Braunstein had asked the judge to impose concurrent sentences totaling 10 to 20 years instead, the paper reported.
Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse is a first-degree felony under Title 18, Section 3123 of the Pennsylvania Crimes Code, carrying a maximum of up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $25,000, according to Frank Walker Law. Pileggi ultimately found no mitigating factors and cited aggravating factors including the victim's age, per the Delco Times.
Defendant Maintains His Innocence
Williams told the court he intends to appeal, arguing he was convicted based on perjured testimony and that there was no evidence of wrongdoing, the Delco Times reported. “I feel like I was railroaded, I really was,” Williams said, according to the outlet.
Pileggi said he weighed the attorneys' arguments, victim impact, public safety and rehabilitation in crafting the sentence, the paper's account states. Williams is not eligible for early release and received credit for time served dating back to October 3, 2024.
Lifetime Registration and a Looming Predator Hearing
Because IDSI is classified as a Tier III felony sex offense under Pennsylvania's Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act, lifetime registration and quarterly in-person reporting to Pennsylvania State Police applies automatically upon conviction, as Hoodline has previously reported. Williams was also ordered to participate in a sex offender program while incarcerated, provide a DNA sample to state police, and have no contact with children, per the Delco Times.
Separately, the Pennsylvania Sexual Offenders Assessment Board found that Williams meets the criteria for designation as a sexually violent predator, a status that would impose stricter monitoring beyond standard registration, the Delco Times reported. Braunstein objected to that finding, saying the report was written by someone who did not conduct an interview with Williams and appeared based largely on sexual-assault allegations from 2017 that had been dismissed, according to the outlet's account.
Under state SOAB guidelines, a sexually violent predator designation includes active community notification and quarterly verification, requirements well beyond Tier III registration alone. The board itself is a Commonwealth body of 76 psychiatrists, psychologists, and criminal justice professionals appointed by the governor to evaluate whether an offender has a mental abnormality predisposing them to further violent sexual offenses. Pileggi has scheduled a hearing for January 20, 2027, to hear arguments on the designation, and judges retain final authority to accept or reject SOAB recommendations after that hearing.
A Familiar Courtroom for Delaware County Sex Crime Cases
This is not the first high-profile child sex assault case Pileggi has overseen recently. In September, he presided over the trial of an Upper Darby man convicted of rape after a jury deliberated for less than three hours, a case Hoodline covered in detail. Pileggi has served on the Delaware County bench since January 2016, following a long career in Pennsylvania politics that included eight years as Republican Senate Majority Floor Leader and a prior tenure as Mayor of Chester.
The Delaware County District Attorney's Office operates a dedicated Special Victims Unit and a countywide Child Abuse Task Force that coordinates municipal police and county detectives on child exploitation investigations across the county's municipalities. Cases like Williams's reflect a broader law enforcement push nationally: federal Internet Crimes Against Children task forces conducted nearly 347,000 investigations and made more than 17,000 arrests in 2025, according to figures from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
