A McHenry man who was sentenced to 24 months of probation in January for choking a woman has been sent to prison for battering the same victim.

Angel O. Santiago-Maldonado, 38, pleaded guilty earlier this month to domestic battery with a previous offense, a Class 4 felony. He was sentenced to 2½ years in prison and is required to serve half his prison time followed by four years mandatory supervised release.

Before heading off to prison, Santiago-Maldonado will be taken into custody in Lake County, where he has a pending case. There he is charged with six counts of domestic battery involving a different woman, Lake County Deputy Chief and Public Information Officer Christopher Covelli said. Lake County issued a warrant Nov. 1, 2023, for his arrest stemming from an incident on Oct. 18, 2023, in Waukegan, Covelli said.

In Santiago-Maldonado’s current McHenry County case to which he pleaded guilty Sept. 17, authorities said on March 5, Santiago-Maldonado violated the terms of his felony probation by coming into contact with the victim named in the previous case, punching and kicking her and “knowingly” causing bodily harm, court records show.

Santiago-Maldonado had been sentenced to two years of felony probation Jan. 17 after pleading guilty to aggravated domestic battery involving the same woman. As part of his probation for that case, he was not to have any contact with her.

After his first court appearance in the March case, Santiago-Maldonado was detained in the county jail pretrial. Judge Cynthia Lamb said he was a “real and present threat to the safety of the alleged victim in this case,” having “kicked and punched [her], leaving marks and bruising.”

Lamb noted at the time that the defendant “was placed on probation less than 45 days before this offense for an offense against this same victim. He was ordered not to have contact with this victim but clearly did.”

After Santiago-Maldonado made a first appearance last year in the previous case, Judge Carl Metz also found he “posed a threat” to the woman and detained him. Santiago-Maldonado remained in jail until entering his guilty plea Jan. 17 and being sentenced to probation, court records show.

According to the indictment and criminal complaint in that case, on July 22, 2024, Santiago-Maldonado struck, grabbed and choked the woman by “using two hands and pinning her up against the wall by her throat/neck, restricting her breathing. Angel also used his forearm to put pressure on [her] neck/throat while he was behind her, restricting her breathing.”

Police arrived after a third party reported a domestic disturbance, Metz said, adding that Santiago-Maldonado has a violent criminal history, including what the domestic battery case in Lake County where there also is an order of protection against him from someone “different from the victim in the present case.”

Santiago-Maldonado was convicted in 2020 of the domestic battery of a pregnant woman in St. Joseph County, Michigan, the indictment shows. He also was convicted of domestic battery in 2010 in Collier County, Florida, records show.

He will receive credit for 197 days in the county jail, according to the judgment order signed by Judge Mark Gerhardt in McHenry County court.