31yo Texas woman upset with her soup refused refund and replacement, decided burning face of cashier was the answer

A simple complaint about hot soup at a Temple, Texas restaurant became a violent attack that made headlines across the country in November 2021. Amanda Nicole Martinez, 31, was arrested and charged with assault causing bodily injury after security cameras caught her throwing soup right into the face of a restaurant worker at Sol De Jalisco Mexican restaurant.

The trouble started when Martinez ordered a spicy menudo soup from the restaurant on 4201 S. General Bruce Drive. After she picked up her order, she called the restaurant to complain that the soup was so hot it melted the plastic lid on the takeout container. Restaurant manager Jannelle Broland, 24, talked with Martinez on the phone and offered ways to fix the problem.

Broland tried to help Martinez by offering her both her money back and a different meal. “I of course offered her refunds and was trying to get her either a replacement meal or just something completely different if she wasn’t in the mood for soup anymore. She just continued to yell,” Broland said, as per Inside Edition. But Martinez said no to these offers and came back to the restaurant with the soup container. Things got worse when Martinez showed up and started yelling and cursing at Broland while other customers and their children were there.

From arrest to sentencing over 15 months

Things came to a head when Broland asked Martinez to calm down or leave. She warned that she would call the police if Martinez kept acting this way. “I said, ‘ma’am, I can still help you and get you something, I just ask that you don’t yell and cuss at me.’ And that’s the moment she threw it at me,” Broland said. The security video shows Martinez picking up the soup container and throwing what was inside right at Broland’s face before running out of the restaurant.

The soup had cooled down from when it was first served and did not burn Broland’s skin, but she still got hurt from the violent attack. The spices in the menudo made her eyes sting really bad and got inside her nose, which made her nose bleed. “My first thought was what just happened, why, like why is this happening and I realized I couldn’t open my eyes,” Broland told reporters after what happened.

Other customers who saw the attack helped Broland by cleaning the soup off her face and hair. One customer even ran after Martinez and took a photo of her license plate, which helped police find her and arrest her. Martinez was arrested by Temple Police Department and taken to Bell County Jail. She paid a $5,000 bond and went home the same day.

The case took more than a year to finish because Martinez said no to a deal the court offered her in March 2022. Finally, in February 2023, Martinez pleaded no contest to the assault charge just days before she was supposed to go to trial in front of a jury. The judge gave Martinez 15 months of delayed punishment, six days of jail work release, and an $800 fine. At the court hearing, Martinez said sorry to Broland for what she did. She was also told she can never go back to the Sol De Jalisco restaurant. What happened shows how retail and food service workers deal with terrible treatment from angry customers.