Hounds from pack involved in fatal attack that brought a surprisingly light sentence in North Carolina.
Less time in cases with non-white victims
Human death resulting from dog caretaker negligence in the first third of 2016 brought or affirmed sentences of four convicted dog owners ranging from no time served to a potential life sentence.
The four cases were similar, each involving dangerous dogs either running at large or left unattended in a public place, after the owners had been warned.
Thus the severity or lenience of the sentencing, at a glance anyhow, appeared to depend less on the circumstances of the crime than on the court and the identity of the victim.
Pit bull owner Alex Donald Jackson
The two convicted perps with non-white victims drew markedly less time than the two whose victims were Caucasian.
15-to-life conviction affirmed
A three-justice panel from the California Second District Court of Appeal on April 18, 2016 upheld the second-degree murder conviction of Alex Donald Jackson, who was in October 2014 sentenced to serve from 15 years to life in state prison for the May 9, 2013 death of jogger Pamela Devitt, 63, of Palmdale.
Jogger Pamela DeVitt, 63, was killed by four of Alex Jackson’s pit bulls.
Devitt was mauled by four of Jackson’s pit bulls near his former home in Littlerock, California.
“Appellant knew his dogs were jumping his fence and attacking passersby,” wrote the appellate court panel in a 14-page verdict.
“As an owner of animals with dangerous propensities, appellant had a duty to exercise reasonable care in keeping his dogs from jumping the fence, and his failure to do so caused the death of another person.”
“Jackson was also convicted of three drug-related charges — cultivating marijuana, possession of marijuana for sale and possession of a controlled substance,” recalled Hoa Quach of the City News Service.
Pit bull victim Santiago Veer
Eight years in Argentina
The stiffest sentence yet issued for a dog attack in Argentina, eight years in prison, was meted out on April 25, 2016 to pit bull breeder Horatio Gonzalez, 49, by the Oral Criminal Court IV of La Plata, a city 40 miles south of Buenos Aires.
Gonzalez, convicted of manslaughter, had in 2014 left one of his pit bulls tied near a path in Puerto Bolívar where local children played, despite repeated warnings from neighbors that the dog was dangerous.
Pit bull breeder Horatio Gonzalez
The pit bull killed two-year-old Santiago Veer.
Gonzalez is expected to appeal the sentence as unprecedented, even though it was less than a third of a 25-year maximum.
No time in North Carolina
At the opposite extreme of sentencing, Judge Stan Allen of the Rockingham County Superior Court in North Carolina on January 6, 2016 sentenced farmer Daniel McCollum to serve just 9 months of supervised probation for involuntary manslaughter, to pay $900 in court costs, and repay $1,055 in veterinary and vaccination expenses incurred by the Rockingham County animal shelter while holding 15 of McCollum’s dogs in custody.
Rockingham County Judge Stan Allen.
And no kennel costs
Allen exempted McCollum from paying $87,185 in reimbursements sought by the shelter for holding the dogs, at $16 per day per dog.
McCollum’s mixed pack of heelers, hounds, and German shepherds in November 2014 attacked Mexican anesthesiologist Jose Cruz Cazares Robles, 62, in a ravine across the road from McCollum’s home.
Daniel McCollum: no time to be served
DNA evidence linked at least four of the dogs to bite wounds inflicted on Robles, both before and after his death from a heart attack apparently suffered while trying to fend the dogs off.
Visiting for baptism
“The late Robles was visiting his brother-in-law Ricardo Ramos to celebrate a child’s baptism just before Thanksgiving 2014,” wrote Taft Wireback of the Greensboro News & Record.
Victim Jose Cruz Cazares Robles, 62
“After a search that spanned parts of two days, Robles’ body was discovered across the road from McCollum’s home — clothing and shoes ripped from a body covered in bites and scratches,” Wireback continued.
“The dogs were allowed to run free often. Evidence showed that before the Robles incident they had threatened a neighbor, postal workers and United Parcel Service drivers — one of them even puncturing the tire of a delivery vehicle with its teeth,” Wireback summarized.
30 months & no time in Ohio
Victim Annie Williams, 71
Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge Stuart Friedman on April 20, 2016 issued somewhat heavier but still lenient sentences to Leon Morton, 49, and his mother Bobbie Green 71, for the July 2015 pit bull attack death of Annie Williams, 71.
Morton, who received 30 months in prison, had pleaded guilty to felony involuntary manslaughter while Green, who received six months suspended, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor negligent homicide. Green was also barred from ever again keeping a dog.
“Williams visited Morton’s house July 12 to visit her grandchildren and great grandchildren who lived there, some of whom Morton had fathered with her granddaughter,” reported John Harper of Cleveland.com.
Convicted: pit bull owner Leon Morton.
“Morton’s pit bull had escaped from the back yard,” Harper wrote. “Wilson struggled to get back to the car and fell. She was unable to get up before the dog bit her throat and crushed her esophagus.
“It wasn’t the first time the dog had escaped through fence, prosecutors said. The judge was shown photographs of holes in the fence that were covered up with boxes and other items.” Harper finished.
Leniency expected in Arkansas
Leniency also appears to be likely on June 7, 2016 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, when John Chester Smith, 63, owner of C.J.’s Garage in Jefferson County, Arkansas, is sentenced for the March 21, 2015 pit bull attack death of customer De’Trick Omar Johnson, 36.
Pit bull owner John Chester Smith, 63.
Several of Smith’s pit bulls mauled Johnson after escaping from C.J.’s Garage.
Smith pleaded guilty on April 1, 2016 to Class C felony manslaughter, a charge punishable by three to 10 years in prison plus a fine of $10,000.
Victim De’Trick Omar Johnson.
Minimum sentence recommended
“The plea negotiation filed in the 11th Judicial District 2nd Division Circuit Court lists a recommended sentence of three years,” in other words the minimum, reported the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “Smith, who was not present during the attack, had been warned previously about his dogs and their aggressive behavior, Jefferson County sheriff’s office authorities said.”
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I wish I didn’t have to say, disgustedly, “What else is new?”
So here we have it: Exercising on a public road; visiting a relative to celebrate a baptism; playing with other kids outside; and let’s not forget showing up at your auto mechanic’s. Just four of the thousands of activities now deadly dangerous, thanks to idiots who just HAVE to have killer mauler-dogs and, oops, can’t contain them safely away from innocent victims. And with this leniency from the “justice system” when their horrific choice of canine shreds someone, there isn’t a lot of incentive to keep their land sharks away from the rest of the population.
I’ve said it before: why don’t all of you aggressive dog lovers go find an island somewhere and live the way you choose without inflicting your bizarre and macabre preferences on the rest of society? You can take the legislators you’ve been buying off for years with you, too.
Bali, where dogfighting has exploded in recent years, might fit the description of the “island somewhere,” except that most Bali residents who are not involved in dogfighting, dog breeding, and bunching dogs for sale to dog meat restaurants might object. Closer to home, island nations in the Caribbean are desperately trying to exclude pit bulls, amid an explosion of recent pit bull atack fatalities.
Could the differences in sentencing be down to different countries or states having varying approaches to the dog control issue specifically and criminal justice generally as opposed to the difference being down to the ethnicity of the victim (or person responsible for the dogs)?
Dog attack fatality cases were sentenced or recommended for sentencing in the first third of 2016 in the states of Arkansas, California, Ohio, and North Carolina, and in the nation of Argentina as well as the U.S.
The lightest sentences were rendered in North Carolina and Arkansas, both former “chain gang” states known for harsh sentencing. The heaviest sentence was rendered in California, notorious for allegedly lenient sentencing. The Argentinian sentence was the most severe for a dog attack known to have been rendered in that nation.