VIRGINIA -- Jermaine Thaxton, 24, of Nathalie, was sentenced this week in federal court to seven months in prison and three years of supervised release after his prison term.
He was also ordered to pay a $100 special assessment. He was taken into custody to begin serving his sentence immediately.
Thaxton had earlier pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell a dog for the purpose of dogfighting as part of interstate commerce.
Thaxton was arrested after raids on April 20 in Nathalie on what police described as a major dog-fighting and drug operation.
In that raid, 41 dogs, most of them pit bulls, were seized from around a ramshackle mobile home on Doctor Lacy Trail.
On that day, a swarm of local and state police, federal agents, animal control officers and outside animal-welfare groups descended on the out-of-the-way corner of Nathalie.
Since then, some of the seized dogs have been rehabilitated and placed in homes.
(SoVaNow - October 06, 2011)
