Lake in the Hills man accused of strangling woman, violating order to stay away from her, pleads guilty

A Lake in the Hills man was sentenced Monday to three years in prison after he was accused of striking and choking a woman as she slept in her home – allegations made while awaiting trial on charges of beating the same woman, who had a permanent order of protection against him.

Uriel Flores-Martinez, 31, pleaded guilty in the two separate cases involving the woman to criminal trespass and aggravated domestic battery with strangulation, and he was sentenced to three years on each charge, according to orders signed by Judge Tiffany Davis in McHenry County court.

He is required to serve 85% of the prison time on the more serious charge of aggravated domestic battery. He is to serve half the prison time for criminal trespass.

In 2024, he was accused of entering the woman’s Crystal Lake home about 4 a.m., grabbing her by the throat and shaking her, causing red marks on her neck, court records show. He also was accused of taking her cellphone when he left so she couldn’t call for help, according to a criminal complaint.

When arrested in 2024, he was out of jail on a cash bond in the earlier domestic battery charge from 2023. When he made his first appearance before Judge Carl Metz in the latter case, the judge said Flores-Martinez had an “extremely violent nature” and detained him under the SAFE-T Act.

Although Flores-Martinez was accused of violating an order of protection when he trespassed on her property in May 2024, he’d fled the woman’s home after her son called 911 and wasn’t arrested until July 25 of that year, authorities said.

On the day he was arrested at his Lake in the Hills home, McHenry police said they were investigating a suspicious person in a McHenry city park who turned out to be driving a vehicle belonging to Flores-Martinez, police said. Flores-Martinez was not driving or in the car, but police learned he had an active warrant for his arrest issued by the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office, and the person driving the car led police back to Flores-Martinez’s home, where he was taken into custody, police said.

In the 2023 case, he was initially charged with aggravated domestic battery, aggravated battery, unlawful restraint, domestic battery and unlawful interference with the reporting of domestic violence, records show.

Assistant State’s Attorney Steve Gregorowicz, who argued for Flores-Martinez’s pretrial detention in 2024, said he is controlling, obsessive and dangerous. Regarding the 2023 case, the prosecutor said Flores-Martinez struck the woman “several times in the face causing extensive bruising,” breaking her nose and causing a brain bleed.

In 2023, he was also accused of strangling the woman and preventing her from calling 911; when she tried to leave, he detained and struck her and threatened to kill her, according to the prosecutor and court documents.

After his prison stint, Flores-Martinez must be on supervised release for 4½ years, must abide by the protection of order and faces deportation, Davis wrote. He will receive credit for 371 in the county jail, according to a court document.

In exchange for his plea, additional counts in the 2024 case were dismissed, including the more serious home invasion, a Class X felony that could have sent him to prison for decades, court orders show.