GREAT FALLS-
A man convicted of killing a Blaine County sheriff’s deputy was sentenced Monday to another 10 years in prison for biting off parts of another man’s nose, ear and finger.
Laurence Jackson Jr., 29, already is serving back-to-back life sentences for killing Deputy Joshua Rutherford and wounding Deputy Loren Janis in a 2003 shootout in a field near Harlem.
The biting attack occurred hours before the shooting, as Jackson drank and cruised around the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation with a cousin and two friends.
Jackson got angry when his cousin refused to drive the group to Harlem, and threw a beer can at her from the back seat.
One of the two friends, William Gone, told Jackson to calm down, and Jackson attacked him and bit his face.
Doctors who treated Gone said he was missing 25 percent of his ear, 30 percent of his nose, and a section of his left pinky finger when he arrived at the nearest clinic.
“The absolutely heinous nature of the crime itself is inescapable here, Mr. Jackson,” U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon said Monday before handing down the sentence. “What you did is nothing short of barbaric. … You are not only an extremely dangerous person, you are a cruel person, and you are an extreme danger to the community.”
He also noted that Jackson has 13 violent crime convictions in tribal court.
Jackson’s sentence in the biting attack will run consecutively with his two life sentences for killing Rutherford and wounding Janis. Jackson received an additional 100 years for the shootings because he is a persistent felony offender.
His attorney in the maiming case, Henry Branom Jr., said he will appeal.
The sentence exceeds federal guidelines, which call for roughly five to seven years in prison. Branom argued for a three- to four-year sentence.
He also asked the judge to consider treatment rather than additional prison time, saying Jackson “never really had a chance in life.” Defense attorneys in Jackson’s murder trail said he was irrevocably affected by fetal alcohol exposure, physical and emotional abuse, alcoholism and a variety of mental disorders.
In addition, Branom argued that sentencing guidelines recommending extra time for permanent or life-threatening injuries should not apply. Gone’s injuries were not life-threatening and, with medical treatment, have healed, Branom said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lori Harper Suek said Gone underwent three corrective surgeries and likely faces more.
The first doctors to treat Gone “actually dispatched family members to find parts of Mr. Gone’s body so they could be reattached,” she said.
Haddon rejected Branom’s argument, saying that violent offenders cannot use the healing power of medical science as a defense.
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Information from: Great Falls Tribune,
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