Repeated domestic abuse adds up to 10 years in prison
A 34-year-old Elgin man, who authorities describe as a serial domestic abuser, was sentenced Thursday to seven years in prison after he pleaded guilty to attacking a woman in 2011.
Quinzeric D. Span, formerly of the 400 block of Chicago Street, was already serving a three-year prison term when he pleaded guilty in mid-October to felony aggravated domestic battery charges after the victim showed up in court to testify against him.
Prosecutors had shown that Span threatened the victim from jail in an effort to stop her from testifying.
The charges stemmed from an April 18, 2011, attack in Elgin in which prosecutors said he attacked a woman, breaking her orbital bone and perforating her eardrum.
Authorities issued a warrant for Span and he spent nearly a year on the run before authorities picked him up. He also faced felony charges from a March 2010 attack in Elgin against a pregnant woman, court records show.
While in jail on the 2011 charges, his first phone call was to the victim in which he acknowledged beating her and that he felt bad, prosecutors said.
In June 2012, Span was to go on trial for the 2010 offense, but the victim didn’t show up in court and a July 2012 trial date was set.
Before the trial, prosecutors showed that Span contacted the victim several times by himself or through third parties in an attempt to coerce her not to testify.
But she did show up at the July trial, and Span pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years on the 2010 felony charges.
Another trial was scheduled in October on the charges from April 2011, and the victim at first did not appear in court. Prosecutors presented evidence that Span had made repeated calls to the victim while he was in jail on Oct. 4 asking her to lie about her testimony, not cooperate with authorities and not show up for the trial.
Judge Timothy Sheldon issued Thursday’s sentence, which under law can be halved for good behavior while incarcerated.
Span faced up to 30 years in prison because of his prior convictions for domestic abuse and drug charges.
According to court records, Span was arrested at least three times on charges of domestic battery in Elgin between 2003 and 2005.