
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 22, 1995                   TAG: 9502220105
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press RICHMOND
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

COURT SAYS TEETH CAN BE WEAPONS

An HIV-positive man who bit two prison guards can be convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, upheld the conviction of Jeffrey W. Sturgis, who in 1993 was sentenced to 14 years in prison for biting Lorton Reformatory officers.

Sturgis, who went to the prison to visit an inmate, attacked the officers after a struggle stemming from a pat-down search. He bit one officer's thumb and the other's forearm.

Both officers tested negative for HIV at the time of the trial in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.

Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, writing for the majority, said the jury accurately concluded that teeth can be considered a dangerous weapon, since the wounds Sturgis inflicted ``were in essence indistinguishable from punctures caused by a knife or an ice pick.''

Wilkinson, joined in the ruling by Judge Karen J. Williams, also said there was ample evidence to prove Sturgis intended harm. He cited trial testimony that suggested HIV can be transmitted through a bite.

Judge Kenneth K. Hall dissented, arguing that a body part should not be considered a weapon.

Hall said ``beer bottles, chairs, telephone receivers swung on a cord - all these clearly come within the ordinary meaning of weapons; teeth, however, do not.''

by CNB