Carol Stream man gets prison for latest fight

DuPage Circuit Judge Robert Anderson recognized the man standing before him Friday.

Six years earlier, Jamie E. Terpstra was involved in a fatal beating in Hanover Park.

Terpstra served a short stint in prison after prosecutors reduced the original murder charge to aggravated battery.

In his latest fight, the 28-year-old Carol Stream man broke a glass bottle over a man's head three years ago in Bartlett. Though a repentant Terpstra called it a "wake-up call," Judge Anderson said he should have gotten the message the first time.

Anderson sentenced Terpstra to four years in prison, rejecting a plea for probation.

"I can't ignore what your prior history is," the judge said. "I would have thought that after the last experience you would never be before me again and yet here you are for a similar offense.

"The best predictor of the future is the past and your past is the reason I am doing this."

Terpstra pleaded guilty May 30 to aggravated battery. He faced probation or up to 10 years in prison.

More than three dozen of his family members and friends wrote letters of support.

His attorney, Sam Amirante, urged the judge to give Terpstra another chance. He said Terpstra has turned around his life and has complied with strict home confinement these past three years while on electronic monitoring.

Terpstra started his own company and had hoped to get married. In a tearful plea, the remorseful man accepted responsibility for his past bad behavior.

"I spent a lot of time beating myself up about the situation I am in, but I realize this happened for a reason," he said. "It helped me wake up and be the man I am now. I don't want to live my life like this."

In the latest incident, prosecutor David Imielski said Terpstra broke a glass bottle filled with Jagermeister and Red Bull over a man's head June 18, 2005, then repeatedly struck the man while he was on the ground. The victim survived.

Richard Nichols, though, wasn't as lucky. On June 30, 2002, the 31-year-old Hanover Park man suffered fatal injuries after being repeatedly kicked by three young men, including Terpstra, outside a Hanover Park fast-food restaurant.

In Anderson's courtroom, prosecutors later reduced murder charges against the trio, including Terpstra, because a highly intoxicated Nichols was the one who started the fight. He also had a very violent criminal history, unlike the other men.

Terpstra, whose criminal history also includes a 1996 weapons charge, will be eligible for parole after serving half the four-year term.