Man pleads guilty to punching, kicking woman in Woodstock, gets prison time

A Wisconsin man has pleaded guilty to punching and kicking a woman during an altercation in a Woodstock home and was sentenced to 3½ years in prison.

Jacob Howard, 24, of Beloit, pleaded guilty to aggravated battery earlier this month; he is required to serve half the prison time followed by six months mandatory supervised release, according to an order signed by Judge Tiffany Davis.

Howard also pleaded guilty in McHenry County court to misdemeanor domestic battery and was sentenced to 295 days in county jail. But with time served since his arrest, that sentence is considered completed, according to the order.

Howard had been kicked out of his family’s home in Wisconsin and was staying at the home of a family friend in Woodstock when the friend, a woman in her 60s, told one of Howard’s family members that he was causing her stress and “terrorizing” her, a prosecutor said during his initial court appearance last year, at which he was detained. The family member went to the Woodstock home to talk to Howard when, authorities said, he began beating her.

Assistant State’s Attorney Julio Cantre said during that hearing that Howard punched the woman, she fell to the ground and Howard got on her back and began “pummeling” her. The woman told police he hit her at more than 15 times, Cantre said. At one point, the woman told authorities, she felt a burning sensation in her head and she thought “he was going to break [it] open,” Cantre said, adding Howard then stood and began kicking her.

At the hearing Assistant Public Defender David Giesinger said the altercation occurred because the woman had taken Howard’s phone away, and he was trying to get his phone back when he hit her. A video recorded of the beating by another person in the house, which the judge watched during the hearing, shows that when he got the phone back, he started walking away, Giesinger said.

In exchange for the plea, additional charges were dismissed, including a second count of domestic battery and one count of criminal damage to property, both misdemeanors, documents show.

While in custody at the county jail, Howard was charged twice with criminal damage to property, Class 4 felonies. He was accused of smashing a TV and a laptop, according to the complaints. Those cases were dismissed, records show.

Howard has also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge for punching another man in jail, court records show.