Man accused in nose biting arrested

CLOVIS – A 35-year-old man was arrested Sunday, charged with biting another man’s nose when he crashed a barbecue last week.
Joey Maes of Clovis is being held on $55,000 bond on aggravated burglary and three counts of aggravated battery, according to jail officials.

Maes was attending a family barbecue April 19 in the 100 block of Westerfield. Witnesses said Maes was arguing with a female who was also a guest at the home and when they continued arguing, they were thrown out of the party, according to a criminal complaint filed in Curry County Magistrate Court.

Witnesses told police Maes returned to the home, kicked in the front door, grabbed a knife off the kitchen counter and began threatening people with it.

Records show Gilbert Aburto and two other men pinned Maes against the kitchen counter in an attempt to disarm him and Maes bit off a piece of Aburto’s nose.

Police found the piece of Aburto’s nose lying on the kitchen counter and collected it for possible DNA evidence.
Two females present during the incident also received lacerations to their fingers.

Aburto was later located leaving the hospital where he was treated for the bite and referred to a specialist for reconstruction.

Recalling the incident, Aburto said:
“I had him pinned and I had the knife in one hand and I had him by the head in the other hand. You know, he looked at me just like you’re going to kiss someone mouth to mouth. Then he went straight to my nose, scraped down and bit. It was surprising that he did that.”

Aburto said he has had to learn to laugh at the situation because he has been left with an injury that just, “doesn’t look good.”

“It’s going to take a couple of months to get everything together,” Aburto said Monday, explaining he has many plastic surgery appointments in his future as doctors work to rebuild his nose.