AIDS-Positive Inmate Sentenced for Biting
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MINNEAPOLIS — An inmate who bit two guards after testing showed he had been exposed to the AIDS virus was sentenced Friday to five additional years in prison by a judge who said she had “empathy and compassion” for him.
“You have this virus that people are afraid of, and you are uncertain about what the future holds . . . but this was a violent crime, and it calls for a significant sentence,” U.S. District Judge Diana Murphy told the inmate, James V. Moore.
Moore, 44, a New York City heroin addict serving time for credit card fraud, was convicted in June of two counts of assault with a dangerous and deadly weapon--his teeth--on two guards at the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minn.
Before sentencing, Moore told the judge he was taking drugs for epilepsy at the time of the biting last January and could not remember everything that happened. But he denied he ever threatened to kill anyone.
According to evidence at the trial, Moore said a few days after the incident that he hoped the guards got AIDS and died.
Neither of the guards has tested positive for the AIDS virus.
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