A South Dakota man has been given seven years in prison for biting off his girlfriend’s nose during a fight. His 22-year-old victim was assaulted back in January of 2016. Prosecutors have called her injuries “horrific” and claim that she also had bite wounds on other parts of her body, including her torso, arms, legs, and face.

Thirty-year-old South Dakota native John Abdo has served time in prison before. He has been incarcerated six times and has violated parole after each stint in jail. Naturally, the judge did not look favorably on this and noted that Abdo biting off his girlfriend’s nose showed that he was still in contempt of the law and not taking things seriously.

hand in jail

Despite Abdo having been accused of biting off his girlfriend’s nose and his 22-year-old victim testifying against him in February, she recently wrote a letter to the judge asking that her former boyfriend be absolved of his crimes. For reasons unknown, she asked for all charges to be dropped and to allow him to continue on with his life. Judge Anderson said he felt that even in light of the letter, he didn’t find probation to be an appropriate way to handle Abdo.

“It takes a while for people to be squared away. You’re not squared away…. These are unforgivable, but not something that we can’t work past,” he said during the sentencing.

Judge Anderson, however, having seen her wounds and her previous court testimony, stated that the letter would not have much impact on his sentencing, especially since she has been gravely injured for life and in light of his previous criminal history.

Judge Anderson also told John Abdo that despite his crime of biting off his girlfriend’s nose and other violations, he was a talented writer. Abdo has created a website about Native American heritage and shares blog posts about his passion. Judge Anderson said he found the posts and thought Abdo was an impressive writer who could be a great role model to Native American kids if he took his situation more seriously.

Abdo’s attorney spoke on his character and how great of a person he was despite being sentenced for biting off his girlfriend’s nose.

“I can tell a couple of things from John. He likes to write and he’s very proud of his heritage. He is sincere in trying to be helpful to the Native American people,” he said.

Abdo will now begin his sentence for the crime of biting off his girlfriend’s nose. He will receive credit for the year he’s already served in prison waiting for the trial. However, he also has been charged with escaping. During the time he was in jail awaiting trial and sentencing, he was released for a job interview. He failed to return for four months, which added a few years to his time, wracking up the total time to be served as eight years. Abdo was found after his job interview in June of 2016 and forcibly taken back into custody.

While the crime of Abdo biting off his girlfriend’s nose may seem truly bizarre, it isn’t the first time this has happened. In 2015, a North Carolina man, Chris Campbell, was accused of biting off half of his ex-girlfriend’s nose after the pair parted ways. The 35-year-old Michelle Messer ended up permanently disfigured after her ex took off a good portion of her nose in retaliation. Although his she states intent was to kill her, he at least did not succeed on that front. Campbell was then arrested on domestic violence charges with the intent to kill.

Chris Campbell was also accused of a similar crime in 2015 [Image by Myrtle Beach Police Department]

[Featured Image by South Dakota Department of Corrections]