CLINTON COUNTY, IL — A jury trial will begin Tuesday in Marion County Court for a 27-year-old Centralia man facing multiple charges of child sex crimes. Thomas M. Smith has remained in the Marion County Jail with bail set at $500,000 since his June arrest.

He’s facing two Class X felonies for predatory criminal sexual assault of a 6-year-old child and Class 2 felony aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim under the age of 13. In a separate case, he was charged with Class 2 felony violation of the sex offender registration. Smith was already a registered sexual predator at the time of this latest arrest. It appears the initial crime and conviction that landed Smith on the Registry occurred when he was 21 in Clinton County and his victim was 14. He has since been convicted in 2015 of possessing child pornography on his computer and violating the sex offender registration then in 2017, he was convicted of child sex offender loitering and child sex offender communicating on the internet – all in Clinton County. He was then convicted in 2020 in Clinton County of violating the sex offender registration.

Attorneys in the case anticipate the trial will take three days following jury selection.