A Florida woman has been sentenced to 30 days behind bars after pleading guilty to deliberately coughing in the face of a cancer patient at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in an interaction videotaped last year.
Debra Jo Hunter, 53, pleaded guilty to felony in the June 25 incident at a Pier 1 store at the St. Johns Town Center in Jacksonville, where she berated store employees and coughed on a woman who began filming the incident, WJXT, a reported independent TV station in Jacksonville.
According to The New York Times, a judge in Jacksonville sentenced her to 30 days in jail, citing court documents.
FLORIDA WOMAN IS GUILTY OF CANCER PATIENT’S FACE
According to an email obtained by the Associated Press, Hunter must also serve six months probation and be subject to a mental health and anger management evaluation.
The victim, Heather Sprague, told authorities at the time that she started filming as a maskless Hunter who berated store staff for not allowing her to return an item she did not own, the TV station reported.
Sprague, who described herself as a brain tumor patient and wore a mask, began recording the heated encounter – prompting 53-year-old Hunter to make obscene gestures at her.
(Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office)
‘I think I’ll get really close to you and then cough up on you. How is that?’ Hunter, who was not wearing a mask, is heard saying before she is seen coughing on the woman and then walking out of the store with her children.
Sprague later filed a police report saying she began to feel ill after the incident.
Before she was convicted, Hunter – who was in jail for up to 60 days – said she wasn’t looking for “ mercy, ” but urged the judge to consider the backlash she’s faced since the viral episode. has.
In a three-page letter, she said that her children “are still humiliated by my mistake […] ashamed, punished and ridiculed by their peers and adults alike. Each of my three children has lost almost every friend they had, ”reported First Coast News.
She claimed her family had experienced several traumatic events in the months leading up to the incident, including a near-fatal boating accident and a house fire that destroyed their home. On the day of the incident at Pier 1, she wrote, “My daughter was shocked to see a stranger answer the three of us on her phone.
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“Admittedly, I was immediately enraged and demanded that this client stop filming my children. In the heat of the moment, I overreacted in an overprotective way, ultimately leading to my retaliation against this stranger, the victim,” wrote they.
“And,” she added, “that very regrettable quick response cost my family a lot.”