"I thought I was going to die," Ryan Fuller told a Franklin County jury today as he testified against the dog's owner.
Ryan, now 13, turned to show jurors the puffy, pink scar that runs along the left side of his neck as a constant reminder of the near-fatal injuries he sustained when the dog attacked him on May 9, 2010, in front of 319 S. Powell Ave.
Donald Moore, 35, is on trial in Common Pleas Court on two counts each of felonious assault and failure to confine a vicious dog in connection with two attacks by his pit bull.
Seven months before mauling the boy, the dog also attacked Lori Tapia, 41, in front of 40 S. Eureka Ave. Scars were visible on her face when she testified about the incident on Tuesday.
After the state rested its case this afternoon, defense attorneys tried unsuccessfully to persuade Judge Laurel Beatty to dismiss the case, arguing that no evidence was presented to establish that it was Moore who failed to properly confine the dog.
The defense will begin calling its witnesses on Thursday.
Ryan, an incoming eighth-grader at Wedgewood Middle School, was calm and composed as he was questioned by Assistant Prosecutor Nancy Moore and cross-examined by defense attorney Crysta Pennington.
He said he was walking from the home of his grandmother, who lived in the duplex next to Donald Moore's residence, to his family's house directly across the street when the pit bull, named Caine, broke free from a leash tethered to a stake in the front lawn and jumped on him.
The dog scratched the top of his head and bit him on the back and behind his left ear before sinking its jaws into the boy's neck and dragging him from the lawn onto the sidewalk. Donald Moore and the boy's parents were among several people who tried but failed to get the dog to release the boy.
A neighbor, Tony Marcum, testified that he rushed into his house, got a butcher knife and stabbed the dog to end the attack. The dog was later euthanized.
Ryan recalled asking his father if he was going to die before paramedics rushed him to Nationwide Children's Hospital in critical condition. He spent several hours in surgery and required weeks of physical therapy to help him properly move his neck.
Nerve damage left him with a slight drooping of his left eyelid. The left side of his face no longer sweats, he testified.
The attack of Lori Tapia stemmed from a fight between Donald Moore and Tapia's teen son, testimony showed.
Vicki Turner, who was walking with them in front of Moore's house on Oct. 5, 2009, when the fight started, testified that Moore's girlfriend let the dog out of the house and that Moore told the dog, "Attack, attack."
The girlfriend, Stephanie Shahan, pleaded guilty last month to one count each of felonious assault, failure to confine a vicious dog and misdemeanor assault. She is awaiting sentencing and isn't expected to testify in Moore's trial.
PREVIOUS ATTACK
Moore pleaded guilty last year to a misdemeanor count of failing to confine a vicious dog after the same pit bull was roaming free on Feb. 23, 2010, and attacked a Rottweiler mix that was being walked by its owner on Wrexham Avenue. Moore was sentenced to six months in jail for that incident, but the dog was returned to him.
If he's convicted of all the charges he currently faces, the maximum prison sentence would be 19 years.
State law defines pit bulls as vicious dogs and includes strict requirements for how they must be confined by their owners. The General Assembly is debating a bill that would remove the vicious label from the breed.
(Columbus Dispatch - July 6, 2011)
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