Joliet Man Sentenced To 8 Years After 2019 Motel Attack On Girlfriend

JOLIET, IL — A 45-year-old Joliet man was sentenced to spend eight years in prison on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to battery charges involving an attack on his girlfriend at a local motel, prosecutors said.

Charles Galloway, 45, of Joliet, was sentenced after he pleaded guilty to aggravated domestic battery and domestic battery in connection with the 2019 attack to which he pleaded guilty to earlier this year. Galloway will receive 189 days credit for days he has served in custody and will also serve a mandatory supervised release period of four years following his time in prison, Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow said.

In the days leading up to the November 2019 incident, prosecutors said that Galloway and the woman had been arguing and Galloway refused to allow the victim to leave. Glasgow said Galloway accused the woman of cheating on him and grabbed her phone and started to look through it.

Prosecutors said he began calling several of her friends and questioning them. The two started to argue and prosecutors said that Galloway hit the woman across the front and left side of her face with so much force that he knocked her to the ground and cut her lip. He then threw her phone against the wall, breaking it to pieces, prosecutors said.

Galloway went into the bathroom and the woman fled from the motel room to the manager’s office, which was closed. Prosecutors said she frantically started pounding on the door and screamed for help. But Galloway caught up with her and dragged her her back toward their room, Glasgow said.

The woman struggled to fight back before prosecutors said Galloway pushed her to the ground in the parking lot and then began striking her repeatedly in the face. Prosecutors said that manager saw Galloway holding the victim by her head as he punched her about the face repeatedly.

The manager called 911 and described the ferocity of the attack, urging the dispatcher to send the police immediately and saying, “he’s going to kill her", prosecutors said, The manager then called out to Galloway that he had called the police. Galloway took off his belt and began to charge toward the manager, according to a news release.

Joliet police officers arrested Galloway. The woman suffered multiple facial fractures, prosecutors said. Galloway called the victim from the jail multiple times in the days following his arrest trying to intimidate her into not participating in the prosecution of this case.

“This case shows the brutality and continuing fear faced by victims of domestic abuse and violence. Victims become captives of their abusers who use emotional and physical cruelty to control them,” Glasgow said in a news release.

“These cases are the most difficult to prosecute because the victims are living under constant emotional, financial, and physical threat and intimidation by their abusers while their cases are pending. We must use every tool available to prosecute abusers and protect the victims during and after the prosecution of the case.”