At one point, witnesses said, the dog came free of its collar. The SUV stopped, and the driver got out, put the leash back in the SUV and then sped off, leaving the screaming dog in agony.
The Creek County Sheriff's Office found the SUV the next day and questioned Hahn, who denied any knowledge of the incident.
Witnesses picked Hahn from a photo lineup as the man who was driving the SUV, authorities said.
Hahn was on leave from the Army at the time of the abuse. By the time he was charged, he had returned to his station in Korea.
Local authorities notified the Army about his arrest warrants, and Hahn was put under military arrest in Korea and returned to Sapulpa on Dec. 23 to be booked into jail.
He was released on $6,000 bond in a matter of hours.
Some reports said that the dog belonged to his then-girlfriend Rikki Leigh Seritt, 18, who, was also charged with felony animal cruelty as well as two misdemeanor counts of obstructing an officer.
Once charged with the crime, Hahn used high-priced legal counsel to help him ‘get off.’
Animal welfare organizations posted a reward to attract additional witnesses and kept a vigil at each courtroom appearance. Cody Hahn appeared grinning in all photos and never acknowledged the severity of the crime for which he was accused.
Ultimately in 2010 Hahn texted an intimidating message to a witness. By that point the family members who had gathered to support him had largely vanished and he was finally represented by a court-appointed attorney.
Hahn’s early legal team tried every angle to challenge Oklahoma’s anti-cruelty statutes. At one point attorney Creekmore Wallace of Sapulpa dramatically claimed that if statutes protected a stray (thereby valueless) dog from being skinned alive, possibly our statutes could be used to criminalize someone who stepped on a bug.
Hahn’s arrogance lost, and his legal counsel’s maneuvering failed. He was convicted in January 2012 of animal cruelty. He was sentenced to a total of five years, including one-year in the county jail (probably only served about 3-4 months) and then was let out to serve the remainder of his sentence on probation.
Even though Defendants are warned that if they get themselves arrested while they're on probation, they're going to spend the rest of their sentence in jail, that doesn't happen often. In fact, records show than Hahn got himself arrested in December 2016, but it doesn't appear that they extended his sentence any for violating the terms of his probation.
DOB: 8/18/1988
Gender: M
Race: W
Height: 5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
Weight: 175 lb (79 kg)
Hair Color: N/A
Eye Color: N/A
Booking ID: 20161209069
Arrest Date: 12/09/2016 at 20:02
Booking Date: 12/09/2016 at 20:27
Release Date: N/A
Arrested By: TCSO / KACZYNSKI
Address: 4650 E ADMIRAL PL APT. 226, TULSA OK 00000
DLM: 1246388
Assigned Cell: J9-KK-1
Description: HOLD/CREEK COUNTY OKLAHOMA
Court date: 12/09/2016
Bond type: Hold W/O Bond
Bond amount: $0.00
I'm posting this today because Cody Wayne Hahn is now off probation. We'll see if he obtained some mental health counseling in the past five years because someone who intentionally tortures and abuses animals are prone to do it again, possibly to children or adults. His behavior during his criminal case - grinning in all of his mugshots and to the media - was bizarre in itself.
Offender: Cody W. Hahn
Gender: Male
Race: White
Height: 5 ft 8 in
Weight: 154 lbs
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Green
Birth Date: 08/18/1988
OK DOC#: 730458
Court: CREEK COUNTY COURT
Offense: CRUELTY TO ANIMALS
Conviction date: 01/26/2012
Term: 5 Years
- 1 year county jail incarceration, 4 years probation
Term code: P&PSUS (4 YEARS SUSPENDED)
Sentence begins: 01/26/2012
Sentence ends: 01/25/2017
And what happened to the poor dog? Well, there's good news. The dog was renamed Sammi, recovered from its horrific injuries and was adopted to a great home.
Isaac Bond spotted Sammy the dog at a veterinarian's office after his abuse at the hands of Cody Hahn.
"He had no hair and he was pretty much hairless on the arms. Scars were open and pus was coming out. It was nasty. Because how cut up he was and no one wanted to touch him and he just had that one look on his face, 'take me home.'"
Sammy walks with a limp now and may need to have his left, front leg amputated some day.
Hahn also was sentenced to pay back $3,000 in vet bills accumulated for the dog's care.
What about Cody's then-girlfriend Rikki Leigh Seritt, who was also completely involved in this horrific crime?
- Oklahoma: Army serviceman Cody Hahn appears in court, accused of animal torture
- Oklahoma: Army soldier Cody Hahn denies dragging dog and then abandoning it on the side of the road to die
- Oklahoma: Cody Hahn has hearing on felony animal cruelty case in which he and his girlfriend Rikki Seritt are accused of tying a dog to their pickup and purposely driving off, skinning the dog alive
- Oklahoma: Army serviceman Cody Hahn arrested for intimidating witness in animal torture case
- Oklahoma: Police searching for Cody Hahn's girlfriend Rikki Seritt - both involved in the horrific dog dragging case
- Oklahoma: Cody Hahn, 20, already arrested on animal cruelty charges for skinning a dog by purposely dragging it behind his truck. Now his girlfriend Rikki Seritt, 18, has been arrested
- Oklahoma: Rikki Seritt, 18, and her boyfriend Cody Hahn, 20, have upcoming court dates, accused of purposely dragging her dog behind their vehicle, skinning the dog alive
- Oklahoma: Already charged with felony animal cruelty, Cody Hahn manages to avoid jail on an unrelated criminal charge
- Oklahoma: Army serviceman Cody Hahn convicted of dragging dog behind SUV then abandoning it to die
