A Kanawha judge handed down the maximum sentence Wednesday but said he wished he could give more prison time to a man who bit a child.
Aaron Hudgins, who previously pleaded guilty to drug and child abuse charges, said before being sentenced Wednesday that he was high on methamphetamine and other drugs at the time he injured a 17-month-old boy.
He was sentenced Wednesday to spend one to 15 years in prison for possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine and between two and 10 years for child abuse.
Kanawha Circuit Judge Charles King ordered the sentences to run one after the other. The judge called the child abuse case one of the worst he has ever seen and described Hudgins' actions as "barbaric."
"You, sir, clearly establish that not all animals are in the zoo," King told Hudgins, before handing down the sentence.
Assistant Kanawha prosecutor Maryclaire Akers showed the judge photographs of the child's injuries. The toddler had bite marks on his shoulder, arm and on the left side of his face.
Tiffany Taylor, the child's mother, immediately took her son to the hospital when she returned home and found him severely injured. She said she had trusted Hudgins, who she had considered a friend, to watch her son. Hudgins told her at the time of the incident that the baby had been bitten by a dog.
Taylor already has pleaded guilty to drug and neglect charges stemming from the incident. On Wednesday, she asked the judge to give Hudgins the maximum sentence.
"Death wouldn't be good enough for him," she said.
Taylor's mother, and the child's grandmother, called Hudgins a monster. Her grandson still has nightmares from the abuse, she said.
Akers also called Hudgins a monster and told the judge about another incident involving the defendant allegedly biting someone.
In 2014, Hudgins was accused of battery and robbery for allegedly entering a woman's home and demanding she give him money. When she didn't, Hudgins bit the woman on the left side of her face Akers said. Hudgins was never convicted of that incident. The victim wouldn't cooperate with prosecutors.
After Wednesday's hearing, Taylor held her son against her chest outside the courtroom. He's healthy and safe now, she said.
Akers commended Taylor's cooperation with prosecutors. She was willing to provide any information law enforcement officers asked of her, the prosecutor said.
"When you think about a child carrying around scars of physical abuse from that age, it makes you shudder," Akers said after the sentencing.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.