Hempstead man who bit off ex-girlfriend's lip sentenced to 15 years in prison

A Hempstead man convicted of biting off his ex-girlfriend's lip and her friend's fingernail was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison, prosecutors said.

Anibal Perez Ramirez, 30, was found guilty at trial of eight charges, including first-degree assault, on Oct. 7.

"This defendant brutally and mercilessly disfigured the mother of his children, and violently attacked another innocent man, biting both of them," acting Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said in a statement. "Today's sentence closes the chapter on a case that required extraordinary efforts by prosecutors to ensure that the defendant be held accountable, and now he will spend his days in prison for a very long time."

Acting Supreme Court Justice William O'Brien on Tuesday sentenced Perez Ramirez to 15 years in prison and 5 years of post-release supervision.

Ramirez's attorney Jason Russo, of Bay Shore, said his client maintains his innocence and plans to appeal. A notice of appeal was filed in Ramirez's name Tuesday, he said.

"He said he didn't commit this crime," Russo said. "And the victim made statements to the court and the probation department that he did not commit this crime and [she] didn't want him to be sentenced so harshly."

On Sept. 21, 2014, Ramirez's former girlfriend and a male friend returned to her Fulton Avenue apartment in Hempstead, which she shared with her two young children, at about 3:30 a.m. Ramirez, who was waiting behind the door with a hammer, first approached the woman, then hit her friend in the forehead with the hammer when he tried to intervene.

Ramirez attacked his former girlfriend by the neck and bit off her lip and the skin on her chin. He also bit the forearm and finger of the male friend, tearing off his fingernail, during the struggle. Ramirez fled the scene but surrendered to police two days later, officials said.

The girlfriend needed plastic surgery to fix her injuries. Prosecutors had to obtain a material witness to compel her to testify during the seven-day trial.

The jury deliberated for about an hour before finding Ramirez guilty.