The emotional response was triggered by a group of people who sat in front of Taura Krill-McCormick at Municipal Court and wore T-shirts with pictures of her dogs that died and the one survivor.
"We wanted her to see and remember those that she hurt and murdered," said Melissa Panchura, who worked with Krill-McCormick, rescuing animals.
Krill-McCormick, 25, ended up waiving the hearing and was ordered to stand trial on five counts of cruelty to animals and one count of harboring a nuisance. She remains free on bond and did not comment to Pittsburgh's Action News 4 as she left the building.
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| Taura Krill-McCormick with her lawyer. |
Panchura said she and Krill- McCormick became close friends, but now she is disgusted by her.
"There is no excuse," said Panchura. "She had more than 100 people in rescue. She talked to me on a daily basis. She knows I help with animal rescue. She could have called any one of us to go and get those dogs and we would have went and got them in a heartbeat."
Krill-McCormick's attorney, Charles Lopresti said everything that could have gone wrong in his client's life went wrong at the same time, although he added that it was not an excuse. Lopresti said his client is devastated over the death of her dogs.
"She's not emotional because she's here today and she's charged. She's emotional because these animals suffered," said Lopresti.
Pittsburgh Public Safety spokeswoman Sonya Toler said police found four dead dogs, two pit bulls, a terrier mix, and a Rottweiler -- in the home on Sebring Avenue on May 22. An emaciated pit bull was also removed and nursed back to health.
According to the criminal complaint. Krill-McCormick said she fell behind on payments and received a notice from the mortgage company that it was foreclosing on her home.
Krill-McCormick left her house in February and had been living with random people. She stated in the complaint that she was unsure when her home would be taken from her.
She said she would go back to the house every day from February through April to feed the five dogs and let them out for exercise, but hadn't been back to the home since April 26, according to the complaint.
Krill-McCormick said she had no family members or friends to help her with her finances, and did not know what to do with the dogs, as the people she was staying with did not let her bring the dogs with her, according to the complaint.
Pittsburgh police officers were sent to the home for a well-being check after neighbors were concerned because of a foul odor coming from the residence. The criminal complaint states that a utility worker came to the home to shut off the water, and he smelled the odor and heard what he thought was a whimpering dog inside.
(WTAE Pittsburgh - Jul 30, 2015)
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