A Harvard 18-year-old accused of strangling and sexually assaulting a woman after she “crashed out” has been detained in McHenry County jail pretrial.
Jonathan Juarez-Hernandez, 18, is charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault, a Class X felony, as well as aggravated domestic battery involving strangulation, prosecutors said in court last week during the man’s initial court appearance.
Assistant State’s Attorney Garrett Miller argued for Juarez-Hernandez’s pretrial detention, saying he poses a threat to the woman and there are no conditions to mitigate that threat. Additionally, the woman said she “prefers he be detained,” Miller said.
Since the alleged Aug. 25 battery and assault for which he currently is charged, Juarez-Hernandez allegedly has committed other violent acts against the woman, showing a “step up in his abusive behavior,” Miller said.
In a petition for an order of protection filed Nov. 12, the woman said Juarez-Hernandez physically and verbally abused her in September and October. She said on Sept. 2, he punched her repeatedly in the face.
On Oct. 2, she said, he kicked her in the stomach and hit her in the back and head “until I had fallen to the ground. ... [It] had gotten to the point I was not able to think straight because how hard he was hitting me in the head,” the woman wrote in the petition, filed in McHenry County court.
The woman said that between Oct. 9 and Nov. 11, he would drive near her house, down her street and near places she normally goes “where he had never gone before.” She also received multiple phone calls and texts from him and his family members, according to the filing.
“He is overall a very angry person, I fear that he will get mad and try to hurt me if he sees me out in public,” the woman wrote in the petition. However, despite the claims in the civil petition for an order of protection, Juarez-Hernandez only faces felony criminal charges related to the allegations on Aug. 25, records show.
Still, the prosecutor said in court that since being served with the order of protection on Nov. 13, Juarez-Hernandez has violated it. At 3:10 a.m. Nov. 22, authorities said he began calling the woman and attempted to add her to his SnapChat account, according to a misdemeanor criminal complaint filed Nov. 23 in which he is charged with violating the order of protection.
Juarez-Hernandez admitted to Harvard police he “attempted to call and add [her] to SnapChat,” according to the complaint. When Juarez-Hernandez made his initial appearance on this charge, he was released with GPS and ordered not to go within 5 miles of the woman’s Woodstock home.
However, a petition for sanctions filed by prosecutors alleges he violated this order in January. On Jan. 26, he pleaded guilty to violating the order of protection and was sentenced to one year of supervision, records show.
Miller said the crimes Juarez-Hernandez is accused of committing on Aug. 25 are “heinous and sexual in nature.” Miller referred to a report that he said showed police saw marks on the woman’s neck from Juarez-Hernandez strangling her twice during the August assault, 10 seconds apart. Miller said there is video evidence showing Juarez-Hernandez’s behavior toward the woman and the bruises.
But Assistant Public Defender David Giesinger said his client scored a 1 on a risk assessment, lives with his family and is employed. The reason the GPS indicated he violated the order of protection in January is because he travels near her home to go to work in McHenry, the lawyer said.
Giesinger recommended Juarez-Hernandez be released under court supervision and with GPS. He could be placed on home detention with a curfew allowing him to leave home only to go to work, Giesinger said.
But Judge Cynthia Lamb agreed with prosecutors, noting the woman told police that on Aug. 25 Juarez-Hernandez choked her “so hard that she couldn’t breathe and thought she was going to die. This happened two times in one incident, about 10 seconds apart” and she “crashed out.” The woman said he only stopped choking her “when she became too weak and stopped fighting back, at which time the defendant removed her clothing to forcefully” sexually assault her, the judge said.
Lamb also said that even though Juarez-Hernandez is not charged in relation to any other allegations, “he would routinely strangle and punch [the woman] in the head until she ‘crashed out’ during their relationship and verbally, physically and sexually abuse her.”
“The court recognizes that this Defendant is a level 1 pretrial risk score; however, there are no conditions that can mitigate the real and present threat that the defendant poses to the victim,” Lamb said.
Should Juarez-Hernandez be convicted on the most serious Class X felony, he faces six to 30 years in prison.