Editor’s note: This article may contain disturbing content not suitable for children and/or those who are survivors of domestic violence.

RIVER FALLS – A River Falls man is behind bars after severely beating a woman and biting her in the mouth.

Elvis Richard Presley Baker, 24, Osceola (formerly of River Falls), was ordered to pay $10,000 cash bail in Pierce County Circuit Court April 13 on felony mayhem, felony aggravated battery – intend great bodily harm, felony strangulation and suffocation, disorderly conduct (two counts), and battery charges, all with the domestic abuse modifier, plus one misdemeanor bail jumping charge. If convicted, he faces up to 40 years in prison and/or up to $100,000 in fines.

According to the complaint:

Police received three 911 calls about a domestic in progress at 12:08 a.m. April 12 at an apartment in the 1500 block of Cemetery Road. When police arrived, a neighbor had gotten Baker out of the apartment away from the survivor, who was bleeding profusely from her mouth where Baker had bitten her. She also had a lump the size of a baseball on the back of her head that was bleeding, and bruises all over her arms, neck and upper chest.

She told officers that Baker had been living there for a month or two. He had been drinking that night and became angry when she wanted to go to bed. He wanted to talk about three recent deaths in his family. He retaliated by slamming her into walls, doors and the fridge. At one point he latched onto her lips with his teeth and pulled away from her face before attempting to strangle her.

One of the children in the apartment fetched a neighbor, who intervened. At one point he put Baker in a headlock to subdue him. EMS transported the woman to Hudson Hospital with severe injuries, where she received stitches in her mouth.

Baker is back in court for a preliminary hearing at 1:30 p.m. April 20.