A career criminal with the surname Coffee was charged yesterday with throwing hot coffee on a fellow inmate at a Florida jail, according to an arrest report.

Investigators allege that Andrew Coffee, 53, admitted to dousing the 21-year-old victim with coffee, but denied punching the younger inmate in the head (as victim Chauncey Jones claimed). Throwing the coffee, Coffee explained, was “better than actually ‘beating his ass,’” the report notes.

Coffee reportedly told investigators that he has “been getting annoyed by Jones because he is much younger.”

Seen above, Coffee is a repeat felon with a lengthy rap sheet that includes an attempted murder conviction for which he served more than 11 years in state prison. Coffee is being held in the Vero Beach jail without bond following his arrest last year for allegedly attempting to kill a sheriff’s deputy.

During a traffic stop, Coffee sucker punched Deputy Christopher Lester and then shot the cop in the leg, an attack that was recorded by Lester’s dashboard camera. Lester returned fire, striking Coffee in the legs and torso.

The coffee battery, a misdemeanor, is the least of Coffee’s abundant judicial troubles.