A Florida woman has been sentenced to 30 days in prison after pleading guilty to deliberately coughing in the face of a cancer patient during the coronavirus pandemic in an interaction captured on video last year.
Debra Jo Hunter, 53, pleaded guilty to assault during the June 25 incident in a Pier 1 store in the St. Louis area. independent TV station in Jacksonville reported.
According to The New York Times, a judge in Jacksonville sentenced her to 30 days in prison, the court report quoted as saying.
FLORIDA WOMAN REMAINS GUILTY TO COURSE IN CANCER PATIENT
Hunter must also serve a six-month probationary period and be subject to a mental health assessment and anger management, according to an email obtained from the Associated Press.
The victim, Heather Sprague, told authorities at the time that she had begun filming as a maskless staffer who had been raped by Hunter because she did not allow her to return an item she did not have in her possession. do not give, reports the TV station.
Sprague, who described herself as a patient with a brain tumor and wearing a mask, began recording the heated encounter – Hunter, 53, gave birth to him indecently.
(Sheriff of Jacksonville)
‘I think I’ll really get close to you and then cough you up. How are you?’ Hunter, who was not wearing a mask, is heard saying before she is seen coughing at the woman and then walking out of the store with her children.
Sprague later filed a police report saying she began to feel sick after the incident.
Prior to sentencing, Hunter, who stood trial for up to 60 days, said she was not seeking “mercy” but asked the judge to consider the setback she has faced since the viral run-off .
In a three-page letter, she said her children “still suffer from unworthiness because of my mistake. […] embarrassed, chastised and mocked by both their peers as well as adults. “Each of my three children has lost almost every friend they had,” First Coast News reported.
She claimed that her family had experienced several traumatic events in the months before the incident, including an almost fatal boat accident and a house fire that destroyed their home. On the day of the incident at Pier 1, she wrote: ‘My daughter was scared when she noticed a stranger picking up the three of us with her phone.
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“Admittedly, I was immediately furious and demanded from this customer to stop filming my children. In the heat of the moment, I overreacted in an overprotective way, which eventually led to my retaliation on this stranger, the victim. has, “she wrote.
“And,” she adds, “that extremely regrettable, knee-jerk reaction that is costing my family dearly.”