New murder-by-dog case filed in Virginia
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2005:
FREDERICKSBURG–The first murder-by-dog case filed in
Virginia was on March 24, 2005 set for an April 20 preliminary
hearing in Spotsylvania County Circuit Court, three days after a
grand jury indicted Deanna Hilda Large, 36, of Partlow, on one
felony count of involuntary manslaughter, carrying a possible
10-year prison sentence, and three misdemeanor counts of allowing
dangerous dogs to run loose.
Large was briefly jailed but was released on $10,000 bond
after police determined that her three unneutered male pit bulls on
March 8, 2005 killed distant neighbor Dorothy Sullivan, 82, and
Sullivan’s Shih Tzu in Sullivan’s front yard.
The first sheriff’s deputy to arrive, after an emergency
call by Sullivan’s daughter, reportedly shot two of the pit bulls at
the scene. The third was captured and euthanized later. Local
police shot two more pit bulls outside Large’s home two days later
when they charged as the officers interviewed her.
“The [five] dogs were suspected of killing other pets in the
neighborhood, including a German shepherd [on March 1, 2005] and a
kitten,” wrote Emily Battle and Keith Epps of the Fredericksburg Free
Lance-Star. “Sources said that although Large was questioned in
those cases, there was not enough evidence to file charges.”
The Large dogs apparently also skirmished with the dogs of a
nearby pit bull breeder, who at least once fired a gun to break up
the fighting, Battle and Epps reported. “Large is no stranger to
the court system,” added Epps and Free Lance-Star colleague Bill
Freehling. “She was convicted of aggravated sexual battery in 1998
for having sex in a vehicle with a 12-year-old boy,” identified as a
friend of one of her sons. She was sentenced to three years in
prison with all but four months suspended, according to court
records. That same year, she was convicted of a felony charge of
leaving the scene of an accident. She got a $250 fine and a
suspended 30-day jail sentence in that case.”
Other cases
In a parallel but less publicized case, Billy Earl Marberry,
54, of Lanett, Alabama, was charged with manslaughter on February
16, 2005 for the February 4 fatal mauling of Barbara J. Pilkington,
70. Pilkington was killed on a sidewalk near her home by a loose pit
bull who allegedly belonged to Marberry.
Charged with criminally negligent homicide for the November
2003 fatal mauling of horse rescuer Jennifer Brooke, 40, by three
pit bulls in Elbert County, Colorado, William Lawrence Gladney,
48, is still at large. Missing a scheduled court appearance in the
case on January 18, 2005, Gladney was additionally named in an
arrest warrant in connection with the October 23, 2004 shooting
death of Marlo Earl Johnson, 35, at an Adams County motel.
Gladney’s wife, Jacqueline McCuen, 33, was in December 2004
sentenced to serve six years in prison for the Brooke killing.
McCuen had an extensive prior criminal record including convictions
in Iowa for prostitution and forgery.
Manslaughter charges against Roger Allen Hansen, 36, of
Lucinda, Pennsylvania, were dropped on February 16, 2005, after
Hansen accepted a three-month jail sentence for allowing his three
Rottweilers to run at large. The dogs escaped from their kennel and
killed his three-year-old niece, Lily Krajewski, in March 2003.
Hansen’s mother, Kathleen Josephine Hansen, 62, who was also
grandmother of the victim, was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter
in January 2005, but served six days in jail and was fined $5,000
for negligent conduct.
In Appleton, Wisconsin, Calumet County Circuit Judge Don
Poppy on March 15, 2005 sentenced Jenilee Barlament, 19, to serve
seven months in jail plus five months suspended, four years on
probation, and 250 hours of community service for allowing her pit
bull to run loose on May 17, 2004.
The dog inflicted severe head and facial injuries on Maika A.
Thao, 8, as she walked home from school. Police told Barlament to
have the dog euthanized after he twice attacked members of her
family, but Barlament ignored the order.
Anastasia Melissa Richardson, 27, of Aloha, Oregon, on
February 15, 2005 drew 18 months in prison for allowing her two pit
bulls to escape and severely maul Joshua Pia Perez, 7, as well as
Kathleen Imel, 51. Imel saved Perez by leaping out of her car and
throwing herself on top of him.
Richardson “previously has been convicted of resisting
arrest, harassment and several drug crimes, and was ordered not to
have a dangerous dog so a parole officer could visit safely,” wrote
Holly Danks of the Portland Oregonian.
Richardson admitted that her dogs were vicious in a
television news interview, but Circuit Judge Mark Gardner refused to
admit the interview as evidence, and dismissed a charge of causing
physical injury through extreme indifference to the value of human
life.
