Joliet's Jerry Patton Pleads Guilty In 2 Bar Attacks, Dog Incident

JOLIET — Jerry Leon Patton III, arrested in two different violent barroom attacks, has taken responsibility for several violent crimes, working out a plea agreement with the Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow that nets Patton a four-year prison sentence at the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Now 37 years old, Patton was being kept in Will County's Jail since his March 19 arrest by the Joliet police; a Will County judge ruled that Patton was too dangerous to be free under the SAFE-T-Act.

For more than a year, Patton had been free after posting bond under the state's now-abolished form of monetary bail and bond in connection with several violent felony crimes that happened in recent years in the Joliet area, according to court files.

During Thursday's plea agreement at the Will County Courthouse, Patton pleaded guilty to aggravated battery causing great bodily harm to Joliet resident Mark Tomac. That crime happened inside Joliet's Bobby Tap on Plainfield Road on Nov. 12, 2022.

"Defendant was intoxicated at a bar and punched Mark Tomac in the face, causing a detached retina," Will County prosecutors outlined in Thursday's plea bargain with Patton.

That particular aggravated battery sentence indicates Patton will get four years at the Illinois Department of Corrections, to be served at 50 percent. Patton will also get credit for 33 days he spent in the Will County Jail from Dec. 30, 2022 until Jan. 31, 2023 in that case.

As for Patton's violent attack on July 16, 2022, inside Joliet's City Tavern at Midland and West Jefferson, Patton pleaded guilty to aggravated battery causing great bodily harm as well. "Defendant was intoxicated at a bar and punched (a man) and broke his jaw," prosecutors declared in Thursday's plea and sentencing.

As for Patton's crime in Crest Hill of trying to run over another man's dog, Patton pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and reckless driving. That crime happened Oct. 29, 2022.

"Defendant went to the house of (the victim), damaged the victim's car by throwing a brick through the window, then struck the victim with his vehicle, and hit the victim's dog with his vehicle while driving into a residential lawn," prosecutors wrote in Thursday's plea bargain.

As for Patton's most recent crime earlier this year at his mother's TK's Deep End on McDonough Street, Patton "was at a bar carrying a .22 rifle. He's been a convicted felon since 2006," prosecutors declared.

On March 18, Joliet police were called to TK's Deep End for a bar disturbance. When officers arrived, Patton was the only person still inside the bar — and he had a rifle, plus several items in his hands, court records pointed out.

When the Joliet police ordered Patton to drop the items — 1.76 grams of cocaine, a firearm magazine and a .22 caliber Muzzlelite Bullpup Ruger 10 rifle — he complied, according to prosecutors.

For that crime, Patton pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a weapon by a felon; Patton also received credit for time already served, for spending the past 73 days in the Will County Jail, March 18, through May 30.

Thursday's sentencing was handled by Will County's longest serving judge, Amy Bertani-Tomczak. Patton was represented by downtown Joliet criminal defense counsel Cosmo Tedone.

Related Joliet Patch crime coverage of Jerry Leon Patton:

• 'My Life Changed In 30 Seconds': Tattoo Artist Attacked In Joliet Bar
• Man Who Beat Mark Tomac Tried To Run Over Dog in Crest Hill: PD
• Jerry Leon Patton Brings Rifle Into His Family's Joliet Bar