Members of the Tibetan community spoke in support of former Montville resident Jicun Jicun on Friday in New London Superior Court before he was sentenced to nine years in prison for beating his sister-in-law with a shovel in February 2015.

Jicun previously had pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and faced up to 10 years in prison when he stood before Judge Hillary B. Strackbein for sentencing.

Defense attorney Edgar Fankbonner said Jicun had come to the United States as a refugee in the early 2000s and is part of a close-knit community of Tibetans in Connecticut and New York. He said Jicun had been celebrating the Tibetan New Year and was "extremely intoxicated" when the crime occurred. Jicun, he said, is a practicing Buddhist and the assault is in "complete opposition" to his beliefs.

"I submit the incident my client is guilty of is an aberration in an otherwise law-abiding life," Fankbonner said.

Two men who identified themselves as Jicun's cousins and a third who said he was in charge of a New York City organization for Tibetan refugees told the judge Jicun, a father of two, was a good person. Others had written letters to the court to ask for leniency.

Jicun, speaking through an interpreter, said he is sorry and "will never, ever do any such thing for the rest of my life."

Prosecutor David J. Smith called on the judge to impose the full sentence for what he said was "basically an attempted decapitation" which has left lasting scars on the victim.

According to Montville police, the 25-year-old victim suffered a fractured skull, broken left wrist, injuries to the eye and ear and multiple lacerations.

Police found the woman lying in the back seat of a car, her head and clothes covered in blood, after being called to the Henny Penny on Route 32 on Feb. 21, 2015.  One responding officer said it was "the most bloody and gruesome injury he had seen in his career," according to Smith.

The victim's sister, who was married to Jicun at the time, told police she had driven the victim from their nearby apartment. Officers went to the home, where they said there were large amounts of blood in the snow and on the entry way. They said they found Jicun, who had blood on his right cheek and said he had been drinking.

A woman who lived at the home told the police she heard a protracted argument before something hit the door to her room. When she opened the door to see what happened, she said she saw Jicun strike the victim three times with a garden shovel as the victim was lying curled up on the ground.

The judge reduced the sentence by a year and imposed 11 years of special parole following Jicun's release. She issued a lifetime protective order prohibiting him from having contact with the victim or his ex-wife, who has since divorced him. She said he is to have no drugs or alcohol while on parole.

"It's true alcohol might have had a role," Strackbein said. "It's not an excuse for this level of fury and assault."

According to testimony, Jicun has a green card and was a permanent lawful resident of the United States.

k.florin@theday.com