15 years for Guyanese man who bit off chunk of ex-wife's nose

15 years for Guyanese man who bit off chunk of ex-wife’s nose

Jan 18, 2018 News

Hartford, Connecticut (courant.com) – For nearly 30 minutes Tuesday, Rodwell A. Clay told a Hartford Superior Court judge that he still loved his wife, continues to refer to her as his wife although she divorced him, insisted he had a good relationship with his three children and compared his first-degree assault prosecution to the persecution of Christ.
What Clay, 55, did not do, until defense attorney Robert Pickering leaned over and stage-whispered into his ear, was apologize to his ex-wife for biting off a chunk of her nose and permanently disfiguring her. And even then he struggled.
“I’m sorry for what had happened,” he said of the Aug. 11, 2015 incident in the Bloomfield home they shared. “I never meant to hurt you.”
The tone of Clay’s monologue was not lost on prosecutor Christopher Pelosi, who rose to tell Hartford Superior Court Judge Laura F. Baldini that he feared for the life of Clay’s ex-wife.
“His behavior, his version of events, his allocution here raises serious, serious concerns for the victim, her family and her children,” Pelosi said. “The state has concerns for her life.”
Had the violent incident not occurred, Pelosi said he feared Clay would have eventually killed his then-wife. Clay’s victim told the judge that each day she looks in the mirror she is reminded of the attack. She said she hopes to have surgery to further repair the damage.
But mostly, the woman told the judge, she fears her ex-husband, who she said stalked, harassed and threatened her throughout their marriage. She said she wants nothing to do with him and thinks she and her children will be safest when he is deported to his native Guyana.
The judge called the crime “an utter tragedy” and told Clay his ex-wife is “permanently disfigured as a result of a violent and impulsive act.” And then she addressed Clay’s reference to the victim as his wife.
“Your relationship with the victim is over,” Baldini told Clay. “She is no longer your wife. She is your ex-wife.” Their marriage, the judge said, is legally and emotionally over.
The judge also signed an order barring Clay from contacting his ex-wife.
And in response to Clay’s complaint of pain from what he says are broken ribs, Baldini said she hoped it would provide him with some perspective and a sense of what his ex-wife endured “when she had a part of her nose savagely removed from her face.”
The judge then imposed a prison sentence of 15 years, suspended after Clay serves 6 ½ years, and three years of probation. Clay pleaded guilty to first-degree assault under the Alford doctrine, meaning he did not agree with all of the state’s allegations against him, but wanted to take advantage of the plea bargain his lawyer negotiated with the prosecution.

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