Pat Jimenez, 55, was charged with animal cruelty after officers were called to a residence off Peak Place near Tesuque at about 6 p.m. Saturday.
Albert Garcia, owner of a 7-year-old Dalmatian mix named Spike, said neighbors told him they saw Jimenez hit the animal multiple times in the head with a crowbar after Jimenez jumped a fence on the property.
Garcia said several neighbors who witnessed the incident said they had cried out to Jimenez to stop hitting the dog, but Jimenez kept swinging the crowbar at Spike.
Garcia said Monday that he arrived home Saturday shortly after a neighbor called him to report what had happened, and to tell him that police were on the way.
“We still don’t know why he was in the yard,” Garcia said of Jimenez. “Who knows if he was breaking in?”
But Garcia said nothing is missing from his house, and there was no damage to his property. “He just jumped the fence and killed my dog, that’s it,” Garcia said.
The home address listed for Jimenez on the Santa Fe County jail website is off Galisteo Street, nowhere near Garcia’s house. However, Garcia said he heard that Jimenez had recently moved in with a relative nearby.
Jimenez has a criminal history that includes charges on two counts of battery on a household member and two charges of abandonment or abuse of a child. Court records show he was only convicted of one battery charge stemming from a November 2010 incident. His only other conviction was for driving under the influence in 2006.
Six other criminal cases listed in court records show that charges against Jimenez were either dismissed by prosecutors or by judges for unspecified reasons.
Jimenez was arrested an hour after neighbors called police. Calls to the Tesuque Tribal Police were not returned Monday, and a police report was not available Monday.
An arraignment date has not been set for Jimenez, who is being held in lieu of a $25,000 bond in the Santa Fe County jail.
Garcia said he had adopted Spike from a man who came to him complaining that he could no longer take care of the dog. Spike was just 1 year old at the time, Garcia said, and he immediately noticed that the dog displayed a fear of people.
Garcia speculated that the dog had suffered abuse in the past. “But he was a good dog, a good watchdog,” Garcia said. “He was a very kind dog and very emotional dog.”
(The New Mexican - July 2, 2012)
