Homeless man admits throwing hot coffee in barista's face

A homeless man could be sentenced to up to five years in prison later this year after pleading guilty Tuesday to allegations he threw hot coffee in the face of a Starbucks barista.

Jonathan A. Pease, 28, who had recent addresses in Crystal Lake and Round Lake, admitted guilt to aggravated battery and criminal damage to property charges stemming from the Nov. 14 incident that left a female victim with first- and second-degree burns to her face, neck and upper body.

As part of the negotiated plea, McHenry County prosecutors dismissed a second aggravated battery charge and an aggravated assault charge filed in connection with the same incident.

Pease is scheduled to be sentenced March 23, but that could change depending on the results of an intensive probation evaluation scheduled for completion by Feb. 16. If that evaluation determines Pease is suitable for intensive probation, prosecutors and his defense could agree to that sentence, Assistant Public Defender Jason Majer said Tuesday.

Pease was arrested the morning of Nov. 14 after he walked into a downtown Crystal Lake Starbucks "agitated and irrational" and demanded coffee and a roll, police said. After a barista handed him a cup of coffee, Pease sat down in the shop and continued to behave erratically, police said.

When a second worker tried to calm him, Pease threw coffee in the woman's face and began knocking items off a shop counter until a pair of off-duty officers in the business by coincidence arrested him, police said.

It was not the first time Pease had been charged with throwing hot coffee on someone. In 2006, court records show, he was arrested and charged with aggravated battery for throwing coffee onto a worker at a behavioral health facility in Woodstock.

He later pleaded the case down to misdemeanor battery, was placed on 18 months probation and ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment.