St. Paul man who poured boiling water over girlfriend’s head sentenced to workhouse, probation

Jabari Quentin Junior, 23, had pleaded guilty in Ramsey County District Court to first-degree assault in connection with the incident nearly a year ago on St. Paul’s West Side. Two counts of kidnapping and a one count of second-degree assault were dismissed at Monday’s sentencing as part of a plea agreement.

The criminal complaint said the 19-year-old woman suffered severe, oozing burns to her face, arms and torso. Her face was swollen and she couldn’t open one of her eyes. She had a stab wound to her leg.

Junior faced between about six and eight and a half years in prison under state sentencing guidelines. The prosecution asked for a guideline sentence, while his attorney requested probation.

Judge Thomas Gilligan stayed an 8½-prison term for five years, during which time Junior will be on supervised probation. The judge gave him a year in the workhouse, with credit for 246 days he’d already served.

The criminal complaint gives the following information from prosecutors:

St. Paul police responded to a hospital’s burn unit on Jan. 29 and were told that Metro Transit police officers had transported the woman from the West Side.

She reported she’d gone to the apartment of her boyfriend, Junior, on Wabasha Street near Fillmore Avenue two days earlier. She planned on staying the night, but they argued because she was talking to other men. Junior grabbed a hair clipper, held her against the bed and shaved her head. Junior told her “if she wanted to talk to other men he was going to make her look like one,” the complaint said of the woman’s report.

After he poured boiling water from a pot onto her, she tried to leave, but he pinned her to the bed. He had a butcher knife in one hand and choked her with the other. She fought back as she felt she was going to lose consciousness. Junior stabbed her leg, the woman said.