A Gloucester man was found guilty of one count of unlawful wounding earlier this week.
Jonathan Coates appeared before the York-Poquoson Circuit Court on Tuesday for a pre-sentencing hearing at which Judge Richard Rizk issued a guilty ruling.
At a previous hearing, the judgment had been deferred to this week.
Coates was brought before the court because of an incident at the Cactus Bar on Route 17 in York County, in which he punched a man hard enough to cause a puncture wound in his left cheek from where a tooth came through the skin.
After a two-month investigation into the incident, Coates was arrested and charged with aggravated malicious wounding, which was later reduced to unlawful wounding.
At Coates’ trial in July the court found there was sufficient evidence to find him guilty, but put off making a final decision until a later date – a move that Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jeremy Markle described as “rare.”
Coates was ultimately found guilty at Tuesday’s hearing and sentenced to five years in prison with one year and six months suspended, for a total of three years and six months remaining to be served.
Once released from prison, Coates will be on probation indefinitely and will begin to pay back court costs amounting to $545.00.
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