Indianola man gets 26 months in prison for biting off friend's thumb

An Indianola man convicted of biting off his friend’s thumb in a drunken fight was sentenced Wednesday to 26 months in prison and given a warning that if he doesn't start taking responsibility for his mental illness, he could end up behind bars for life.

A Kitsap County Superior Court jury deliberated for a half-day before convicting Orion Anthony Riedel, 24, of second-degree assault for biting off the end of Benjamin Starkel’s left thumb on Sept. 2 during a fight.

Riedel bit through the bone known as the distal phalanx. A doctor who testified at the trial said they had only seen such injuries from industrial accidents.

The brawl erupted when Starkel, high on psychedelic mushrooms provided by Riedel, began antagonizing Riedel for being lazy, unemployed and disrespecting his mother, according to a letter Starkel wrote to the court.

Jurors rejected Riedel's claim that he was defending himself.

Judge Jennifer Forbes said Starkel bears some responsibility for the incident but said thumbs are essential and Starkel's disability is permanent.

“It’s really what separates us as humans,” Forbes said.

Forbes added: “If all Riedel was charged with was punching or pushing or something along those lines, I think we would have a different outcome. But biting off the thumb of another human hardly ever rises to the level of appropriate self-defense.”

Reciting Riedel’s history of violent offenses, Deputy Prosecutor Jason Ruyf said the “lighter touch” courts have used to correct or punish Riedel has “seemingly had no effect” and requested Forbes sentence Riedel to four years in prison.

“Reading (Riedel’s) pattern of disturbing violent behavior it is difficult to describe him as anything other than petulant and volatilely violent to the point of feral ferocity when provoked, even if one labors to be generous,” Ruyf wrote in court documents.

Riedel’s attorney, Sunshine Bradshaw, asked Forbes to sentence Riedel to no more than 18 months in prison emphasizing the hardships he has faced, including his father dying of cancer when Riedel was 12.

“When he is stable, Orion is a very smart, funny, interesting young man,” Bradshaw wrote.

Further, she wrote in court documents that at least at one point in the incident Riedel was defending himself from Starkel.

“Probably not surprising, I do not see Orion as the awful monster … the state makes him out to be,” Bradshaw wrote. “I see a young man who is struggling with his mental health and emotional control. While he does have a history of assaultive behavior, this situation was different in meaningful and significant ways that the state ignores.”

Had Riedel only been convicted of second-degree assault he would have faced between 12 and 14 months in prison.

However, in addition to the felony assault conviction, jurors convicted him of three “aggravating circumstances.” These allowed Forbes to sentence Riedel beyond the 14-month maximum. The “aggravating circumstances” are excessive injuries, deliberate cruelty and injuring a particularly vulnerable victim.

In calculating Riedel’s sentence, Forbes said she started with 14 months and then tacked on an additional year for the “aggravating circumstances.”

Forbes also gave Riedel a warning that he now has a “strike” under the state’s three-strike law and that alcohol, marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms can interfere with medications.

“You are not a child anymore, you are young, but you are not a child,” Forbes said, acknowledging that Riedel is mentally ill. “It’s not a license to go around and hurt people. And if you take that approach you will end up in prison for the rest of your life.”

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Indianola man gets 26 months in prison for biting off friend's thumb