Crime & Safety

Joseph Messina Gets Probation in Mokena Coma Punch Case

Prosecutors were pushing to put New Lenox man Joseph Messina in prison for as long as 10 years.

By Joseph Hosey

The judge in the Mokena coma punch case said "everybody loses" in a criminal trial, and then sentenced New Lenox man Joseph Messina to two and a half years of probation.

Messina, 25, also must turn over $20,000 of his bail money to the mother of the man he punched into a coma in July 2009, pay her $630 a month for the 30 months he is on probation, refrain from drinking and complete 250 hours of community service.

Prosecutors had asked Will County Judge Sarah Jones to sentence Messina to as many as 10 years in prison. Judge Jones, who called passing down a sentence the "most difficult thing I do in this job," said she "cannot use my emotion" in reaching a decision.

"In a trial one side wins," Jones said, "but everybody loses."

The man Messina punched into a coma, 30-year-old Eric Bartels, was present for the sentencing. He sat in a wheelchair set up in the courtroom's center aisle. After Jones announced Messina was getting probation, family and friends on Bartels' side of the courtroom gasped and sighed.

Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow said he was "very disappointed in the sentence."

"We believe that the evidence was there to justify a prison sentence," said Glasgow, who is now working on changing the law to ensure prison sentences in cases like Messina's.

"I'm writing legislation to amend the aggravated battery statute," Glasgow said. "If you cause a severe and permanent disability that requires continuous care, that would be a mandatory prison term."

Messina and Bartels crossed paths at the Mokena bar 191 South. Messina and five friends had gone to 191 South to celebrate his 21st birthday and a fight erupted outside the bar.

During the fight, Messina allegedly punched Bartels, knocking him to the ground. After Bartels fell, Messina straddled his limp body, punched him in the face again and then "raised his arms above his head in victory," a witness testified during Messina's trial.

Bartels suffered a fractured skull and brain damage. He cannot move, eat, drink or communicate and requires constant care.

"This injury that was inflicted on Eric Bartels was just short of murder," Glasgow said.

Messina's attorneys called a witness during the trial who said Messina never punched Bartels and that it was actually another one of their friends, Mike Glielmi, who threw the fateful blow.

During the trial, Glielmi invoked his Fifth Amendment right to not incriminate himself and refused to testify.

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